The Copper Age
by Joak-24
Summary: Finally, Gaea has been defeated. However, only 5 months later the Angel of Darkness rises, bringing with him the end of an Era. Forty years later, the remaining humans and demigods struggle to survive in a devastated, Mist-less world , however monsters and others survivors are only the minor threat... Rated T for language, R&R please, hope you enjoy a post-HoH fanfiction!
1. The Copper Age

**A/N:**

**Rating: "T": There is language and possible not-for-child's stuff/topics, but with 16 years you should be fine**

**Type: Action/Survival/Post-Apocalyptic/Drama-not-drama/Romance(? We'll see**

**Disclaimer: If you think I create Percy Jackson and stuff, what the heck dude, like, really. Go see a doc. Rick the "cliffhanger master" Riordan created the universe and a big bunch of characters, but you already knew that, and I am only adding stuff and characters to his amazing universe**

Nathan

In the middle of the night, he appears. Darker than black, he wields an iron axe, attacking an old man who has a sword and shield. Just after he broke his shield and is ready to give the final strike, I wake up.

Today is no different, as I open my eyes abruptly; I find myself in an almost empty classroom, only with Jack and Robert giving me a silent company. They are like thirty years old or so. Jack is an ashen blond, as are his teeth. He is usually nice, except when he's hungry. And I don't like Robert.

Now with no more sleep, I stand up; circle a pile of desks and chairs piled up in the middle of the classroom for protection, and go out. It is a sunny, yet not hot day. I like this kind of days. I go to the left, directly to the bathroom, wash my face, urinate and get ready for another day.

A dull, boring and probably a not-easy-one day, just as always. Not that I can complain, but it really gets monotonous living in an old school in the middle of a devastated city, in a devastated country, in a devastated… well, nowadays it's all freaking devastated in our godless world.

Okay, maybe that last thing wasn't completely true. Yes, the gods are still out there, but since the rise of the dark angel about forty years ago they rarely spoke to demigods, have sons or care about them. However, as a normal guy, that never really affected me.

Anyway, after going to the bathroom I go downstairs to get breakfast, which consists of green peas, just like the lunch and dinner. We are running low on food, so the general ration is smaller than the usual. Don't care that much though, I always had a small stomach. Here in the kitchen are also little Pablo and his mother Carolina. They are normal, just like me. She said once that her father was from Mexico, a country in the south, but now there were no more countries anymore, at least that anybody knew about. As I am finishing my food, I hear a voice behind me.

"'Sup Nate, everything fine?"

Right next to me is a short-black-hair girl with her own bowl of peas who sit in front of me. She is wearing an old orange T-shirt that the Commander gave her and jeans.

"Hi Jodie."

She is my only "friend friend" here. Not that I hate everyone else, but she is the closest to my age, and well, she never gets too far away. Besides, she has been in the group for a lot of time, so yeah, she is my friend. Unlike the vast majority, she is a demigod.

"So, how was your sleep, huh?"

"I dunno. I get asleep while it."

"Haha." She laughed sarcastically "But really, did you have any dreams or something? Because I dreamed that, while out there, I got surrounded by the Copper Ones and they bite me and make me one of them! It was horrible!"

"Hm. Nah, I dreamed nothing, I never do."

I'm not very social, more like introvert, even with her.

"Really? Well that's boring." She finishes her peas, and says "Men, we are running low on food AGAIN! I hate this."

We have been running low on almost all resources since those punks came. They set up a camp in a city not far from ours, like twelve miles I heard the Commander say. They have attacked us a few times, but we have succeeded in repelling them every single time, mostly because this school is sort of a fortress thanks to the Commander defensive measures and techniques. For example, just after we arrived, She ordered to nail really thin planks in the steps of the principal staircase. None of us thought that would be useful, but hell it was. Every time the Copper Ones or others hostile humans came from there, they couldn't stop tripping up on those, making them easy to kill. The pile of desk and chairs in every room was her idea too.

"Yeah, but with those guys out there the Commander wouldn't let us go scouting for food."

Jodie has asked her many times, but She never agreed. I guess she's right; after all, Jodie is our only demigod; we just can't let her be walking out there like nothing could happen. If it was dangerous already for them before the Copper Age started (or so the Commander has told us), it was insane to let the few of them who remain getting out. But they have to. Their natural reflexes and battle instincts make them fearsome individuals, even capable of killing monsters. And for that reason is why the demigods must always have at least one celestial bronze weapon. Celestial bronze is rare nowadays, and it is very hard to find, if not almost impossible.

Jodie sighs.

"Well, we still have some time before our watch begins, how about training a bit?"

"Why not? I bet this time I will defeat Underwood"

"Right. Sure, totally bro, you got it man…"

I ignore her. We go towards the schoolyard, which is the main training area of the school. As usual, Grover the satyr is already training with his wooden mace reinforced with steel. Technically, he is seventy years old, but as a satyr, he takes twice the time to maturate than humans or demigods, so he has the body of men in middle thirties. Except he has goat legs. And two big pointy horns coming out of his forehead. Aside from that, he was a totally normal goat-man.

"Hey, wazzup old men?"

"Nathan! You are awake! Are you feeling right?"

Hah. Classic Grover move.

"Hi Grover!" says Jodie

"Hi Jodie! What you doin'"

"Not much, here Nathan was telling me he would defeat you in a fight…"

"Huh" he looks at me "is that so? Because that can be resolved very quickly my dear."

I am no coward, so I agree and we both get in our positions. I grab a wooden sword, while him a mace of the same material. Now we are prepared for battle. I attack him from the left, but he jumps and does like he kicks me in the chest, making me flinch. Before I could attack again, he hits me in the ribs and kicks the shit out of me, making me fly ten feet from him before falling to the ground.

Freaking satyr. Since I have memory I had never defeated him, but he told me not think I was weak, "I was not only a Lord of Nature, but an active participant in the Titan's War, and I had as well survived all this forty years, so yeah, I kick more ass than a cheese enchilada" he said. I deduce an enchilada was some kind of food, but it didn't sound that appealing.

Jodie found my fall funny and laughed out.

"Girl, don't laugh so fast, 'cause you are next " says the old guardian. She stops instantly, and looks like she has screwed it up. While getting up, Robert showed up.

"Hey Jodie, Nathan, the Commander is calling for you two."

She never called us just to chat, so I give the sword to Grover and we go up to the director's office.

**A/N : So guys, I am making this because I want to, so I will not request x number of comments or reviews in order to upload the next chapter, I shall post a new one once per week (because that's the time I need to write a hole chapter). It will help me A LOT even the smallest of reviews, even if you don't like the story or else, and it takes just a couple of minutes, so please, give me a review, and I will thank you directly. Thanks, enjoy the story! **


	2. The quest

**A/N: 'Sup guys, hope you enjoyed that last chapter, here's another one, a little shorter but heh, still good for me, oh and please don't be shy and comment, I would really appreciate it**

Nathan

The Commander's office is kinda cold. The windows are widely open, letting the fresh air of the morning enter the room. Fuck the fresh air of the morning; I wish I have my green jacket. I really like my green jacket. I mean, is green. And that's enough for me.

While Jodie and I are standing, She is sitting in her chair, behind the perfectly organized and cleaned desk. The Commander is staring us. As usual, her lips remain unexpressive.

"Katoptris show me that those men of the other city were attacked."

Katoptris is her magical dagger. It can show the possessor things that happen, not sure how. And it's one of the few weapon made of celestial bronze that we have.

"What!" Jodie exclaims "how happened that?"

I couldn't believe it either. Those punks were tough, that's for sure. They only lose 3 men in all the attacks against our fortress.

"I don't know exactly, Katoptris never show much, but I saw their place in ruins, with bodies lying around." She makes a pause, removes some white hair of her face and continued "I need you two go and find out what happened to them, and if it is a danger for us…"

"And search for food" adds Jodie.

The Commander suspires.

"No. Your mission is finding out what happen, and that's it. No delays. Got it?"

"But Commander…"

"Got it?" She insists without shouting, but leaving clear she would not admit a "no" for answer.

Suddenly, the desk started shaking, and the stuff that the Commander has it on (which included a couple of books, a not-lighted candle and a glass of water) started shaking as well. The glass falls and spills the water in the desk.

"Jodie" She says "control yourself!"

Jodie looks to the floor, and then sighed.

"Got it…" she finally says.

The Commander seems comfortable with her answer.

"Very well. You can go now; I shall have a word with Nathan. After we are done, go there as soon as possible."

She left the room, leaving me alone with the old lady.

"Could you…?" She says, and indicates to the library next to the window.

"Sure" I get near to the books "which one?"

"The red big one" I take it a give it to her. She opens it and in a matter of seconds found the page, all by memory "here. Look at this."

I take the old exemplar, and look at it. The page She indicated has an spectacular hand-made drawing of a big-one-eyed creature with a tremendous mace in its right hand.

"This… this is a Cyclops, right?"

The Commander nods.

"Indeed. I suspect that they are what attacked those people."

"Suspect? How can you know?"

"I think I saw a big shadow near those men. I'm not sure though, but you must be ready. You know how Jodie feels about Cyclops…"

"Yeah. Not a problem."

I am already leaving, when She says:

"And Nathan..." I turn around "be careful."

I nod, and get out.

Jodie was waiting for me, and when she sees me, she says:

"What was all about?"

I shrug.

"The usual shit: "be careful, never separate, don't trust in strangers…""

She seems to understand, and we go down to the armory. It is located in what it was a science lab. It is quite big. Because of the punk's threat, we all in the camp had at least one weapon with us at every moment. I have a steel knife, but I leave it in the armory because it wasn't part of my gear. I pick up my trusty machete "_Glace"_. I put her that name since I found it in winter, and because I didn't come up with a better name. Anyway, I also grab the celestial bronze weapon: a knife. Nothing remarkable about it, it's the knife we all share but only use while going outside. And my red multi-tool, always useful, got me out of problems more than once. Also, I put on the left-hand-equip of riot armor. I am lucky I can get a protection. The Commander established that the demigod or demigods shall carry as much protection as possible; however, we have extra gloves and left forearm protection, so She allows me to wear it.

"You ready Nate?" asks Jodie, who already finished putting on her complete riot armor, except for the helmet enhanced with a inner celestial bronze sheet, and her weapons of choice. She only finished first due to her telekinesis stuff.

I sheathe Glace in my back, and I'm done.

"Great" she examines me with her eyes, making sure I don't forget anything. She was always that cautious; especially before us both go to a mission. "Everything is fine. We should get moving."

We go to the garage, which is next to the backdoor of the school. There we have two cars, one big van and "my" motorbike. It isn't really mine, but I was the only one who rides it, so what the heck. I grab my "Iron Maiden" helmet (I came to the conclusion that they were some sort of musicians after finding an old ad about them giving a concert) from the shelf and put it on. I get in my motorcycle while she opens the gate, I get out the ride, she closes the concealed gate from the outside and gets in.

Already on the road, she comes close and let her head rest on my shoulder. It could be a hot situation; however she has almost no breasts, and with her riot gear, even if she had some I would have felt nothing. Not that I complain, but it would have been nice.

**A/N: what's the Commander doing with Katoptris? Is she Piper? Stay tuned and you'll find out! And don't forget to comment your thougths/impressions!**


	3. Funky town

**A/N: Okay guys, chapter 3 is finally here! Hope you enjoy it!**

Jodie

So… yeah, here we are: Nate and me, alone, in his ride, way to the punk's liar… and he is looking SO attractive with his riot gear in his left arm… it makes it looks strong… Don't know what to say though, or even if I should talk, since he likes driving in silence.

"Hey, I got another one!"

"Yeah?"

"Yup: when Percy Jackson looks at himself at the mirror, there is no reflection: there can be only one Percy Jackson."

I can swear Nathan is smiling. But of course, he not answers at all.

Which is the benefit of being a demigod if one can't get the boy she likes? It really sucks. And I am really sure that with the "wisdom" or "prudence" that my mom kindly inherits me will definitely not help. But I know that, eventually, Nate and I will end up together. I mean, we are the only youngsters in the group, and the fortress is really far from any other cities or human camps, so the probabilities of Nathan meeting other girl were remote, if not null.

We are getting close to the city, and there is a sign of "Welcome to…", but is half destroyed and there is no name to read. From that point, the road is blocked with many cars, but letting a way to continue.

"Hold tight, I could have to turn suddenly" Nate says.

Happily, I hug him stronger, and get ready for some loose curves. I was about to tell him to get out of the road and drive easily, but then I notice that were a bunch of Copper Ones out next to the highway so I say nothing.

"So… what do you think happened to them?"

"I dunno."

Holy martyrs! Only one and a half word! He was never chatty –or a normal talker-, but this is ridiculous!

"Maybe they were attacked by other group, or by the Minotaur! Grover sensed his smell a few days ago, so he could have got hungry and eaten them! What do you think?"

"I guess both of them were likely to happen."

"I know right? Men, shit's getting dangerous…"

"Getting? It has been always like this since the fall of Zeus. Monster running freely, humans and demigods working together and killing each other… and with the gods busy at…"

"Coppers Ones!" I shout out.

Nathan manages to stop the ride about a few meters from them. They are standing just there; in the middle of the road, next to a red car, keeping us from continue. There are three of them, and all of them are staring at us with a hungry face. They start, slowly, coming at us, as we get on the ground, and I say: "You take the one on the right, I take the rest."

I'm pretty sure he would like it the other way around, but I guess he just want to get to the city the sooner as possible. While he advances towards his copperface with his machete in the air, I take out my retractable celestial bronze spear and approach the middle one. I impale him in the head, kick it to get my spear free and attack the last one. I was about making a hole in his face, but suddenly a forth copperface appear and get her dirty hands over me, pushing me to the ground. It almost bites me in the face, but I stopped her with my spear and push it. Nathan finished the work separating her head from the body. I turn around and pull down the last Copper One, and end it with a spear in his head. Nate helps me to incorporate.

"You all right?"

"Yeah! Thanks for caring."

He nods and we check the bodies for anything useful, however they have nothing, then we pile them out of the highway and continue our way to the city.

Finally, we arrive to the city. It is destroyed, there only a few buildings standing and everything looks devastated.

"Whoa nelly… such road for such city huh?"

He agrees.

"Like a highway to hell." We laugh. When he wants, he could be witty. "The base was supposedly near the edge of the city, we should continue on foot by now."

We hide the motorbike in a front yard of a dirty white house, he leaves his helmet next to it and we enter the city. From all the cities I have visited (not many but a few), this one is the worst. There is not a single un-destroyed or not savaged house at sight. Mother Nature has been busy: vines and other plants had take a great portion of the view, some vines even reaches the roof of tall buildings. There are a lot of cars in the streets, like they were trying to escape the horrors that the Mist hide from them since always. I could really make the image of that happening, I mean, before joining The Commander's group, me and father visited a few cities, and in every single one it was the same: many cars at the exits, without exception. Of course, there was no much more for them to do: without celestial bronze or other special metal, killing monsters was an impossible task.

However, after the failure of the direct assault against the Angel of darkness, the centaur Chiron ordered all the demigods to separate and guide the humans in this "brave new world", as the Commander told me. It's kinda hard to believe that in the past there was no need of killing to survive, the gods cared about their children and peace was possible. Nowadays, all that is no more than a sad, sad joke. Nevertheless, my father told me that mother actually cared about me, so she let me with him. Even if I never saw her physically or in any way, I can swear she whispers in my ears, giving me council, advising me. It is her godly legacy that gives me my powers. Not only I was better prepared for combat than humans, also I have my telekinesis. At first, it was really hard to control, but as Grover once said: "The power to be strong and the wisdom to be wise; all these things will come to you in time" I improved a lot in that matter. Now that I think it, Grover doesn't seem to be the kind of guy (or satyr) that would come up with such a phrase… Ah, whatever. The thing is Nate and I are walking in the middle of the street, alone, but yet, I have a weird feeling.

"Look" says Nathan, marking out with his finger. It is a reeeally big curtain of black smoke.

"It doesn't look far away, hmm… " I calculate a bit "Must be two blocks away, maximum three."

"Okay, let's get moving"

We go our way there with caution, expecting Copper Ones to jump on us at every corner. Luckily, no copperface appears. Who knows? Maybe they got smarter and run from us! Anyway, as we get closer to the ruins of the camp, I notice that there were big rocks and rock-shaped parts of buildings (has rocks shape? Hmm) which look like were there for not long. "So, whatever attacked them was kinda giant… great" I think.

Just after turning around a corner, we see the camp of those punks. Well, actually, what remains of it. The entrance (which was delimited by a two-cars-high wall made of, well, cars) is absolutely destroyed. If I hadn't seen it before, I couldn't now it was an entrance. We are about to enter, when suddenly I trip over and fall. Surprisingly, were I fall the street was a few inches lower than the rest. I stand up and analyze the reduced sagged ground. It has the shape of a really badly drawn circle. Then I realize what it is.

"Fucking Slayer…"

**A/N: So... only 2 more days until Blood of Olympus! Who do you think would die/survive? Personally, I wouldn't mind if Frank, Piper or Jason dies, not that I hate them, but they are my least favorite of the seven.**


	4. ERYMANTHIAN

**A/N: So, finally fourth chapter is here! Don't mind the silly chapters titles, their purpose is to have "some" relation to the content of the chapter, but most of the time they will be kinda wacky or weird. Like this one. Anyway, hope you enjoy it!**

Jodie

A footstep. A mother fucking giant footstep. Holy martyrs! Nathan crouches and analyzes it himself.

"Could be a giant, maybe the Minotaur itself…" Any of those options are scary. The last monster Nate and I fought was the Erymanthian Boar, and hell it was tough. And if we almost die fighting that big pig, well, I can't picture a scenario in which we defeat whatever left this footstep. Nate seems like realizing something. "or some Ciclo…"

"We should get moving, right?" Nathan shows no objection, so we carry on; searching clues of whatever attacked the punks.

After five minutes we find the first body. I recognize him: he was the old man that carried a shotgun and killed Robert's brother in one of their assaults to our fortress. Glad he's dead. I check him out and found a couple of shotgun's bullets, and even if back at the school we don't have any shotgun, we could find his or another one, so I put them in my backpack. I also notice that what killed him was a big rock that was next to him, partially covered in dry blood. Nathan notices it too, but doesn't say a thing.

A minute later we reach what it seems to use to be their main base. A supermarket named "Chan-shou", which doors were barricated, but not anymore: an upside blue car is in the middle of the market, and left behind a trail of destruction. We enter and see the base for the inside: all the shelves are empty, without exception. There is a stair up to the first floor. Nathan crouches and, slowly, advances, while I keep an eye on our backs and be ready to assist him if needed. In a moment, Nate says:

"Come, there's no one."

I go up next to him. The room looks like before all of this happens it was an office block, but now is like the main hall of the punk's camp. There is one couch by the left wall, and a bunch of chairs disposed in a circle. Both to the left and right are two doors.

"It looks like those punks used to meet here… " I say.

"Yes. You check the left's doors; I check the ones on the right."

I unsheathe my spear and open the first door slowly, wishing there were not a scary monster at the other side. Luckily there is not. It's just the bathroom. I do a quick inspection: three toilets, two urinals and four sinks, wasted white tile walls. I close the door and proceed in the same way with the other door. This is no bathroom. There are several self made bunks and a mattresses, also unlighted candles in wooden tables. I approach the nearest bed, take off the sheets and put them in my back: winter is coming, and I don't want anybody at the school to freeze at night.

"Jodie!" I hear Nathan saying back from his side "Come here a sec'."

I go straight to the open door, and found Nate in some sort of armory. There are two tables and a shelf. A couple of knifes, hand-made shivs, and even a revolver were just lying there, like if they were forgotten, or not taken in time. But Nate's attention is in a little book he's holding.

"What is it?" I ask.

"A journal. It seems that these "four giant and horrible creatures" attacked this camp several times." He stops and continues reading a bit further. "Hmm. Bad news Jodie, this guy points out how terrified he was by the fact that the monsters only have one eye…" He look at me, kinda concerned. I try to keep the stance, but he doesn't buy it. "I think we better return to the camp. There are not survivors and the Cyclopes are no to be seen. Grab these weapons and let's go."

I hardly want to do what he says, but a part of me refuses to still be chicken out by those creatures. However, I know our mission is done: we find out what happened to the punks, and that's it. Then I remember about the food.

"Wait, have you checked the other room?" He shakes his head. "Then I shall look it in case there is any food inside" Before he could refuse, I add: "Come on, take all these knives and shivs, I take the revolver."

I check out the revolver and find out that it still has four bullets in it. Not much, but "not much" was the "a lot" of these days. I put it in my pants and go check the last door.

"Score one to myself" I think. It is the kitchen, it has a small table in the middle with three food cans inside, I can't believe the luck we had all day. I rush into the cans, when I notice there is a BIG hole in the opposite door of the room. I stop right in the place. Holy martyrs! So that is the reason of the slight breeze that I feel. Anyway, I go to the table. I start packing the cans in my backpack, when suddenly an enormous hand appears from the hole and approaches to me!

"AAAAAAAAAAH! NAAAATE!"

I try to escape, but it grabs me anyway and pulls me outside of the building, letting me fall on the top of a car.

"Ha! I got one! JONATHAN! Come here! I got one!" yells an strident and deep voice.

I incorporate slowly and see my aggressor. The Cyclops is wearing a brown outfit, which consist in an ugly vest, wasted pants and a dirty pair of gloves. It is staring me with its gigantic, only, fucking terrifying eye. Unsurprisingly, it is also brown. The monster looks happy. And hungry. Especially hungry. I look out for my spear, but I realize I left it in the kitchen. I definitely didn't want to be food of such a disgusting beast, and trying my best to don't panic, I started talking:

"Well… well done big guy! Hmjdf" my tongue get jammed at the end

"What?" It looks confused "you minn capturing you?"

"To-to… Totally men! Yo-You get me with my… my pants down!" It seems to blush, fucking pervert "so, huuh, what's your name?"

"I'am Crackbone" says proudly "you know whi I ern it?"

"Huh… difficult question…" I pretend to think. "Because… " I shake of the nervousness "you break your victim's" I gulp "bones and it do-does "Crack"?"

It looks surprised and impressed.

"Whoa! Your really smart! How does you… AAHHHH!"

Nathan fell in his back, and is stabbing the Cyclops with my spear. I grab my new revolver and aim to the big eye of it. I know it would not kill it, but at least it will blind it for a matter of seconds.

BANG! Straight to the eye of the monster, it makes it close it. Nate doesn't lose any time and jump off to the street, pass me my favorite weapon and we both start running from Crackbone.

After two blocks, f a giant foot appears from the corner and kicks us both directly to a car. While trying to get up, the new Cyclops makes a noise like smelling, and yells at us:

"A fucking demigod! I bet you are tasty little girl…"

In that we were when Crackbone reaches us.

"Jonathan! Surrry, the boy stabb me from beehind and she… " Jonathan make him shut up by slapping him.

"Fool! Didn't you learn anything from Hexaplus? She said to knock out the prisoners INMIDIATELY. And what did you do? CHAT. Fucking idiot you are!" And slaps him again "this is how it is done" says and kick in our direction.

I manage to roll out from it, but Nathan receives the full impact and become immobile, hopefully just fainted. I try to run, but Crackbone pushes me to the ground and step on my head, making everything dark.

**A/N: hope you don't mind the little cliffhanger :) And yes, I do know how to write properly (most of the times), but Crackbone can't talk well, so I show it writing grammatical horrors. Yeah, it also made my eyes hurts, but that's kinda the idea. What do you think will happen in chapter 5? A little promise: it will be longer than the the rest (not thaaaaat long but longer anyway). Don't forget to comment/review, I really appreciate it**


	5. Hanging Out

**Chapter 5. Yeah. Not feeling exactly chatty today, so what the heck. As suggested by my favorites (and only, but that's totally have nothing to do) reviewers, now I use this shit: "" which I can't remember the name (cool song) right now, but you get the idea. Also, the past chapter already have been modified, changing - for ", so, that's it I think, please make sure of tell me I whatever you like and don't from the story, I really like reading reviews, really. Okay, that's all, hope you like it!**

Nathan

When I woke up, I was hanging about fifteen, sixteen feet above the ground from a rope, with my hands tied. I look to my right, and there it is Jodie hanging exactly like me, still unconscious.

"You finally woke up, huh?" says a voice at my left. I turn my head and see a blond girl tied up. Unlike Jodie, her hair is long, but not that long. She is wearing a black, wasted long-sleeved shirt, cargo pants and shoes of the goddess of victory and athletics. Couldn't be much older than us. "Any ideas to get out?"

"Who are you?"

The girl sighs.

"I think we should focus on escaping, right? Those two will be back soon and I'm too young to be eaten" I nod. "Well, any ideas? I tried climbing the rope, but it's worthless."

I take a few moments to analyze the environment. The big place in which we are all looks like a storage room, a very large one. There are boxes piled up behind us, with a blue clock logo on its surface. In the ground are several bodies, probably the punks. Next to them are some woods and a big, iron pan. I raise the view up to in front of us: a grey wall, almost empty but because of a thin border, a little higher than us from the floor. And just at three feet above it, a sharply, steel and broken beam emerges from the wall. Magnificent.

"See that beam, on the wall?" She nods. "I balance enough to get to the border, there I cut the rope and free us." She makes a grimace.

"If we had more time, it could work, but it take me a while to reach the border before they bring you two here, and those Cyclopes will be here any second. We must think in other way…"

"There is not. Jodie!" I shout to her. She doesn't move. "JODIE!"

"What? How... fucking Slayer!" She says as she realizes she is hanging from the roof.

"Jodie!" She looks at me "Focus, okay?" She slowly nods. "I need you to push me to that border" I say pointing with my head in the direction. "C'mon, we don't have much time."

She takes a big breath.

"Okay, I will try…"

The blond girl was looking at us as we were mad.

"What the fuck are you guys talking?! How could she push you?"

Jodie closes her eyes and concentrates. I start to feel a shy force in my back, pushing me towards the border. I start moving my feet matching the swinging of the rope, to get more impulse quicker. Faster than the previous second, I found myself swinging almost from wall to wall, but still couldn't reach the border. Jodie notices it, and concentrating even more she give me the last push I needed to stand in the border. Luckily, the rope is long enough, so I am able of walking to the beam, and cut the knot that retained my hands.

With a strong noise, a garage door down there opened and entered, crouching, the two Cyclopes. I let the rope go, and try to hide behind the beam. Hopefully, those turds would not look in this way. I see the girl whispering to Jodie, but then Jonathan yells at them.

"Hey you! Quiet!" It shuts up, looking at the loose rope. "Where is the other?! The boy! He escaped! Quick Crackbone! Let's check…"

"No!" Shouts the blondy. She seems horrified, or at least she pretends. "He was eaten!"

"WHAT!? Stop with the bullshit girl, where is he?"

"Yeah, were is him!?" cries Crackbone.

"She's telling the truth! A monster came and ate Nate!" Jodie starts crying. "It was horrible… poor Nate…"

"A monster?!" Asks, incensed. "What monster?"

"It was…" I see her doubting.

"The Freakylmonra…nus! Uh, yeah! She ate Nate!" says blondy.

The two Cyclopes look very confused.

"The wath?" Says the stupid one.

"The Freakylmonranus, who else" Says Jodie, apparently confident "you DON'T KNOW about her? I mean, EVERYBODY KNOWS about her…"

"Duh, of course they know about her! They are not stupid, right?" taunts the other girl.

"Err, yeah! Of course! The Freakylmon… err, ranus, yeah, we know about her, right Crackbone?" Says Jonathan, poking him with his elbow.

"We did?"

"Of course we do! Now, where is she? So we can kill her for stealing our food."

"Oh well, you know, she is invisible, so I don't know." Seeing that Jonathan dislikes that answer, blondy adds: "but, wait! I can sense her… she is… there!" And points with her feet to the other corner, away from me.

Just after those two started searching for the invisible nothing, I run as fast as I can without falling from the border towards a pipe painted of grey, I grab it and slice down to the ground. Now I see that they left our bags and other stuff piled next to the boxes, kinda near from where the Cyclopes are.

Making sure they don't spot me, I run fast to our gear. Crossing the storage room the smell from the dead punks reaches me. Even after having seen (and smelled) uncountable corpses, I could never get used to the fragrance of the dead. I get to the boxes, and hide near our stuff. I raise my head over the box that covers me to make sure they haven't seen me yet. They haven't, so I approach to the short mountain of bags and things. My backpack is right there, not even opened, which means that apparently they haven't registered it. I open it, and confirm my assumption. I grab my knife, and put Jodie's and my backpack aside, next to a box.

"Where the fuck are you? Show yourself, Freakylmonranus! Fight us!"

"I feel her! She is saying… whoa, you indeed ARE a bitch, aren't you?"

"Wereh is shy? WEREH!?"

"I think her voice comes from over there…"

Then, I see the spear of Jodie. If I wanted to kill those two, I would need much more than my knife. But even with these two celestial bronze weapons, I didn't represent a real threat to the Cyclopes. I have to take them one at a time, but how would I do that? _Think Nate_. The garage door is slightly open, just enough to crawl to outside. But I can't let the girls (or at least Jodie) just hanging there… Then I remember Jodie's power. Now I have a good plan. Well, if I think it too much, probably it isn't the best, but there is no time, so I take a shiv from my backpack, climb the big boxes and let it the high I can. Now I call Jodie's attention by waving and shaking my arms, when she looks at me I show her the shiv, and pretend to cut a rope with it. She nods, so she understands the plan, or at least that part.

I get down, save in my belt my knife and the retractable spear in a pocket, and run directly to the exit. Of course, those creatures see me, and run to me yelling and cursing. Just when they were seconds of catching me, I jump and roll through the opening, making them curse a lot more.

The street is pretty empty. I continue running to the right, and spot a roof-less bus. I get inside by jumping through the window, and hide under a seat occupied by two corpses. I lie there, and wait. I hear at the distance the garage door opening and closing, screeching quite a lot. Now I hear their steps. I feel them passing just by, each one at one side of the bus, searching me with fury and hunger.

"He can't be far, humans are not fast…"

"Wii should split bro!" Says Crackbone "Hexaplus said that slipting was good to trapping!"

Jonathan does not sound convinced, but says:

"Okay little bro. I go to the left, you to the right, and don't forget of imitating the girl's voice! Not the blonde one you idiot" says hitting him even before he could say nothing "the OTHER one, now go."

I stand up quietly, just in time to see that Crackbone's wound from my attack with the spear still hasn't healed at all. I was planning on killing Jonathan first, since he represents a much dangerous threat, but it would be much easier taking out Crackbone with his wound unhealed. I get off the bus in silence, and start tailing the stupid Cyclops. Always hiding behind cars, trash or anything, I hear him talking to the air with Jodie's voice. It is fucking creepy to hear that soft voice coming up from such a gross body. When I think we are far enough from Jonathan, I approach Crackbone and stab him with the spear right between his legs.

"GIAAAAAAAAH! Fuu…" Started saying, but falls on his knees.

I climb him over his back using my knife as a pickaxe, damaging him, and when I reach the wound I made him before, I stab him there multiple times, viciously; each cut a little closer to the neck. The blood is everywhere. He finally ends with his head kissing the ground, while he tries to remove the spear that hurts him so much. Now, my cuts are horizontal, like its neck was a tree I had to cut, in that way I am wielding the knife. My vision turns red. He starts to move, frenetic, but can't get me out from his back. After a minute, in which the beast never stopped crying, I separate his head from the rest of the body. In less than a second, his whole body turns into dust, so I fall to the solid pavement. His head is the only thing that remains, and all the top of my body is covered by the monster's blood.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!"

I turn back and see a deadly, enraged Cyclops. Jonathan runs as fast as a beast of its size can towards me. I jump to the right in the last second, escaping from his giant fist. Knowing that without the spear there was no chance of killing him, I try a dodge-and-collect-weapon technique, that Grover itself teach me. I move backwards, making distance between us, moving in a circular way, with my knife ready in my right hand. He charges but again I avoid him, however I get cornered by a car. Now he jumps up high and tries to stomp me, luckily I manage to roll out of his feet, but the wave of the impact pushes me and makes me trip over. I was just incorporating when I see his foot approaching me. I quickly raise both arms in front of my chest, forming an "x" as protection. The impact hurt my arms and chest however, and sends me a few feet back, landing on my back. While still in mid air, I let go my knife, and now I couldn't see it.

"Now you're mine, little shit! I will boil you and eat you with potatoes and…"

"Hey you! FUCKER!"

Jonathan turns around as I look in the direction the voice came. It's the blonde girl. She is so astonishing that she looks like an angel, well, an angel with a shotgun, because she has one of it and it's aiming the Cyclops.

"Come on, the uglier! Show me of what you are made of!" Taunts the girl

"You little bitch… I show you!" Says and charges once again.

She let the monster get really near, and when it was less than two long steps she pulled the trigger. The bullet must been made of celestial bronze, because it stopped Jonathan right in his running and makes him kneel before her. The girl reloads the weapon.

"I LOVE the smell of bronze bullets in the morning… ready for more?"

She was about to shoot again the beast in the chest, but he suddenly slaps her and send her to a dead tree. Jonathan incorporates and crushes the shotgun with his feet and start walking to blondy, who is still recovering of the impact. I get up with a lot of effort, and then I see my knife. I run, take it and go to help the one who just save my life. When I jump and stab the Cyclops in the ribs, I see Jodie appearing from the corner.

"Giaaaar!" Yells the beast, which grabs my leg and throws me directly to the dead tree, in the sidewalk. I land over the girl, hurting us both. We were still getting up when Jonathan reaches us and grab both of us, each with his nasty hands. "Fucking kids! Fuck cooking you, I shall eat you raw!"

Suddenly, a spear emerged from his big eye. His hands failed him, letting us go, and again falls in his kneels. He tries to remove the spear, but he becomes dust before reaching it, and the mortal weapon land in the street. We both look at Jodie.

"Whew! Now that was intense, huh?"

**A/N: my longest chapter yet! Did you like it? Did you not? Why? Please let me know, I would really appreciate it. Any guess about Jodie's mother? Thougths about the new girl? She's pretty badass if you ask me. Anyway, "In case I don't see you... good afternoon, good evening, and good night"! Cheers!**


	6. Raising Hope

**A/N: After a long, hot (sunny) day, Chapter 6 is finally here! If you like it/dislike it, pleas tell me, I really want to know. Hope you like this chaper, in which you will know more about the blonde girl, who is she, what was she doing and that kind of stuff. Okay, that's all, I wish you an amazing day and good reading!**

Nathan

Luckily, there was pretty much stuff for us to take from the pile of bags and junk that those two made out from things of the punks. Unluckily, none of us was able of finding a celestial bronze, imperial gold or black iron weapon. Of course, now we had a lot more clothes and blankets for the imminent winter and, for Jodie´s satisfaction, we also found several food cans. I am filling up a second bag (taken from the punks), when Jodie says:

"Hey Hope, where are you going?"

Hope is the blonde girl. She is standing next to the garage door, about to leave. She turns around, showing a tiny pile of papers.

"Sorry, going to the "bathroom"…" says, making a half smile. Jodie looks ashamed.

"Oh… my bad. Just, don't go too far so you can scream if…"

"Yeah yeah I know about this shit, thanks." Says Hope, and carries on.

Jodie looks at me.

"Awkward, huh?"

I shrug, not really interested in the girls' conversation. Jodie comes closer.

"You think we can trust her?"

"I guess so. She helped you distracting the Cyclopes and saved me from Jonathan… maybe we can give her a chance. But first, let's find out more about her. If she's a sadistic or has another group, we left her here. If not, well, she can come with us."

Jodie agrees, and hurries up finishing filling her second bag. After five minutes, we are done. Hope still has not returned yet, and I start to suspect. Jodie seems to notice it, and tells me that girls need a little more time than boys in the bathroom. I already know that, but I just still couldn't help to suspect. Finally, she appears from the big door.

"So" starts Jodie "what's your plan now, huh?"

"I expected going with you guys!" answers, jovially. But adds: "If there is no problem, of course…"

Jodie and I look each other.

"We prefer knowing a little bit more about yourself before you get along with us, you know, these days no one is trustable…"

Hope smiles. "Of course! You would be idiots if you didn't"

Jodie started:

"How did you get here? To this city, I mean."

"I was part of group; we were like thirty or so. We were always moving from here to there, running from the Copper Ones. We were about to enter this city, when a monster attacked us…"

"The Minotaur?" Jodie interrupts.

"Yes! How did you know? Anyway, the thing is that he attacked us and killed everybody, except from me and a friend; we managed to escape while the monster was devouring our partners. We hid in the city, and discovered that there were no Copper Ones, or at least we did not spot anyone. We found shelter, and stayed near here a few days, but again, monsters found us, even if none of us were a demigod! Two Cyclopes, different from the ones we just killed, caught my friend while vulnerable. They did not spot me, so I followed them. I presenced their fight with some survivors, and those two ended up dead. Sadly, my friend died too in the crossfire, and then Jonathan found and captured me. And that's all, I guess."

It didn't sound false, plus she mentioned the four Cyclopes, just as I read in that punk's journal. Jodie and I exchange a look. She doesn't seem convinced completely, and her instincts were usually right, so I proceed with the questions.

"What weapons do you have?"

She finds my question funny.

"I had a shotgun, with a bunch of celestial bronze bullets, but thanks to Jonathan, it's broken. I also have my trusty big knife, and… well, fuck, nothing else!"

"That's a little too light weighted isn't?" Points out Jodie

"I know girl! But just like I told you: I luckily managed to escape from the Minotaur, and I didn't have time to grab all my stuff."

"Aha" I comment. Jodie seems more relaxed now.

"Okay well, I guess that's all, right Nate?" I nod. "Great, so, um, welcome to the group? I'm Jodie" and tends her hand. They shook hands and Hope smiles.

"I know, glad to meet you too, Nate" Says. I nod.

"Yeah."

"Men, I'm freaking hungry! Let's open some cans, shall we?"

"You sure?" asks Jodie. "I mean, we still are in the middle of this city, it is dangerous!"

"There are no Copper Ones left Jodie, the punks must have killed them all when they arrived. And, if still remains some, we can manage them."

"He's right girl, and c'mon, we just defeated not one, but TWO Cyclopes, we are fucking awesome" Says Hope, smiling.

We sit in some boxes and open two meat cans. Of course, this weren't cans from forty years in the past. As it was a general agreement, the vast majority of survivors saved their food in this kind of container. The punks did so too, so they were not that bad. Anyway, while the girls are talking, I think about the Minotaur. If he attacked Hope's group, it means it can't be too far. And with Jodie here, it wouldn't be a surprise if it appeared. But now, I am more confident. Hope is right: we just killed two Cyclopes. And that's not minor achievement. The Commander always told us the tale of Odisseus the hero and Polyphemus, a Cyclops son of Poseidon, who was defeated by the Greek hero not by brute force, but with intelligence, with wisdom. However, She also told us that before the Slayer there were also good Cyclopes, which made weapons and fight for the gods. In fact, it is said that Percy Jackson's Cyclops half brother was the general of the Olympus army of "good" Cyclopes. So yeah, Cyclopes were big deal, and we killed two in less than ten minutes. Surprisingly, Jodie didn't freak out with them. Good. But now, I remember the Commander petition of being fast. But I don't worry. Being captured and dealing with those two is enough for an excuse.

"Oh my gods a satyr! I never see one before! How are they?"

"Oh, they are just like us, I mean, normal, but with horns and furry legs."

Hope laughs. She has a nice laugh. I finish with my food, throw away the empty can and relax letting my back rest in my bag. Close my eyes for a second. After all, it has been a demanding day. When the girls finish too, I stand up.

"Okay. Time to go."

"Meeen! Are you always like this Nate?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Yes. Now we should get moving, it's not safe here."

Jodie stands up too.

"When he's right, he's right, here, let me help ya" and tends her arm to Hope. She accepts it and gets up.

"Fine. Let me grab my stuff and we go."

She and Jodie get their backpacks and we three get out of the storage room and walk our way out of the city. The girls were, again, chatting a lot. Making too much noise in my opinion, but probably it is because everything else is so quiet. And that's odd. I don't like it at all. I look in every direction, but there is no signal of monsters or anything. I check if "Glace" is still in her place: it is. Ready for a surprise, fast attack to enemies head's. My knife is also where it is supposed to, right next to my red multi-tool. If anything happens, I can act quickly. And of course something happens.

A weird, like-drowned roar sounds just around the corner, being an entrance for the apparition of a Copper One. It is a turned. At seeing us, it yells again. Hope jumps in front of it and cuts its throat, silencing it, and then cuts again, chopping his head off. But the damage was already done. Hope looks to the street from where the Copper One came from.

"Fuck! This is full of them, c'mon, run!" And started running.

Without hesitation, Jodie and I run in her direction. When we catch up, the three of us accelerate. The Copper Ones are everywhere: they come from every corner; it takes only a few seconds to have half of the horde behind us. Now, they are starting to appear in front us, forcing us to run in different directions on the same street. Suddenly, one of them jumps from behind a car and attacks me, but I dodge it and let it on the ground. I hear Hope shouting. I look back, only to see how the copperface I just avoided makes Hope trip over. As I run towards her, she tries to throw off, but the creature has both of her legs trapped. It nears its jaws to her ankle, and bites her in the right leg. I reach them and cut the Copper One with Glace. Hope looks at her bitten ankle, which is bleeding, and then to me, terrified.

"Please…"

I look at Jodie. Her face reflects doubt, panic, and guilt. The creatures are getting closer, and I still didn't do anything. The blood from the bitten ankle has a slight copper gloss, making evident that the copper essence is in her, and will turn her in one of them. I raise my machete.

"No, Nate please wait, there must be… No!"

**A/N: Yes, I know. _ANOTHER_ cliffhanger. What can I say? I love these little ones, they are so... unpredictable. Yeah, that's the word. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter and the story so far, don't be shy and review/PM me telling me what did you like or not, it would help the story-making a lot. Thanks a lot, and keep tuned if you want to know what happens to Hope!**


	7. Going Home

**A/N: SO SO SO SO SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY! Me and family were moving to other house, so I have been without internet since friday! Anyway, I sneak up to the institute to upload this, so great, right!? Anyway, for my delay I shall compaste you my fellow readres by: 1- uploading today AND friday and 2- Changing uploading days to friday (not really a compansation but heh). Okay guys, I am really sorry for this, I should have leave a message or something but I did not. Sorry again. ... Okay okay, this chapter is a little shorter and more focused in memories and to learn more about the characters. So yeah, hope you enjoy it!**

Jodie

At the time we reached Nathan's ride, the sun was already on its way down. Somehow, we managed to left behind those creatures, and take a minimal rest outside the city. Nate puts slowly and with care an unconscious Hope in the ground, and tells me: "bind her up as fast as you can, I will get ready the motorbike". While he does that, I take out some bandages and a bed sheet. The cut that Nate did in Hope's leg looks horrible: it is quite irregular, there are pieces of dead skin hanging from the leg, and the busted bone is awful to see. I had no alcohol here, so I just cover the cut with the sheet as it was a long bandage, I cover it just as the Commander teach me, and use the actual bandages to keep the sheet in its place. It takes no more than a few seconds before it becomes absolutely red. It is disgusting. The first time I had to bandage someone, I threw up.

"Ready?" asks Nate, who is wearing already his black helmet and is standing in his ride.

I nod, and start to put Hope in the motorbike, Nate assists me, and she's ready to go. I run to get my two bags and Hope's, but then I see at least twenty copperfaces getting really close. I use my powers to hang to myself my bags, jump to the motorbike and grab the last one with my hand. Suddenly, a Copper One emerges from the crowd and run toward us. It jumps high, and when is just to land on us, Nate makes the engine run so we escape just in time, leaving behind the horde.

Holy martyrs! Only one more second and I would be meat for copperfaces. But luckily, the danger is away, for now. I look at Hope's stump. It's fucking gross. But it was necessary. Nathan did what it needed it to be done, even if it was disgusting, or means that Hope will never run again. I always admire that attitude in Nate, that "cold blood" as Grover once told me. I really doubt I could do something like that, even knowing it's necessary. Anyway, I am worried about Hope. She fainted while Nate was holding her in her arms, still running from the creatures. When she wakes ups, I bet she while don't like it. But still, I had a question for Nate.

"Hey, Nate…"

"What?"

"Grover's magic couldn't have saved Hope's leg?"

He sighs.

"I considered that option too, but I don't really trust Grover healing abilities. Remember when Carolina's husband was badly injured? He got nervous, and she end up widow. And I'm sure the Commander wouldn't like us to bring a potential copperface to the school."

He is kinda right. Grover could seem to be someone with confidence in himself, but the truth was not like that. He lost the love of his life when the new god rose, not to mention everybody he knew before that. I couldn't blame him.

"I don't know Nate; I think he could have save her…"

He shrugs.

"She will understand."

_I hope so. _I smile with my own bad joke, but only for a second. Father used to tell me bad jokes, but that is in the past, its nonsense thinking more about it. But I couldn't help it. I could never forget the time when me and dad threw rocks at the Copper Ones faces from the roof of a house, or the training sessions, in which he help me controlling my telekinesis… but all that is gone now. It was a Cyclops. He founded me, and attempted to eat me, but my father protected me. He fought with the monster, but had not any special steel to kill it. He told me to run, and I did. I hear my dad yelling of pain, I wanted to come back, but make myself to continue running. I wandered for like four days, all in my own. I was starving, but then, they found me.

"Do you think the Commander will let her stay?" asks Nate.

"I… don't know. Probably, I guess. I…" I was about of saying "hope so", but think again. "I expect that yes, the Commander will agree."

I find surprising the fact that Nathan worries about her. Maybe he feels guilty about cutting her leg… _Nah. He's not like that_. Since I met him, he has been always like that, more or less. He was ten years old by the time I join their group. We were just kids, but the shadow of the sad world we live in had already marked us. But the Commander made us strong. She taught us everything we know. She trained our mind, while Grover our body. It never was too hard for me: Metis legacy not only gives me telekinesis powers, but also makes everything about fighting easier. However, "mental" training with the Commander always makes me a hard time. I just… I dunno. She says I can't focus and never think. On the other side, Nate keep winning the Commander's approval by thinking "coldly, calculatingly", but could not keep up my physical learning rhythm. And that's the main reason we always go in missions together: we complement each other. And, inevitably, I fall for him.

I remember as it was yesterday our first mission together. We were scouting, searching a place where to establish a base, and founded an abandoned, terrifying manor. It had a name graved in regular bronze in the outside wall: "_Derceto_". We entered across the wooden, frontal door. At the right, was a skeleton with fancy droves, and a leg made of wood. A rusty iron sword was next to it. The entire place was scary (for a thirteen years old version of me), but Nathan told me to not be afraid and not make a noise. We walked up to the attic, and I checked a big piece of furniture, with white and black large buttons. They made a melodic sound, each button a different sound. Suddenly, an ugly beast jumped from the broken window. It looked like a giant plucked duck, with bulging eyes and sharp teeth. It landed on me, throwing me to the ground. It was about of biting my face (since then I didn't have my riot armor) when Nate intervene. He hit the monster away from me with his pipe, and before it could attack again, he stroked it in the head twice, very violently. His green eyes were glossing. And then, the creature disappeared in a curtain of fume. Suddenly, we heard strange, menacing sounds and voices coming from everywhere. A chest in the attic started to shake. I swear I felt a dark and powerful presence there, somewhere in the manor. In a silent agreement, we both run away from that cursed place as fast as we could.

A closed curve makes me back to reality. I almost let Hope fall, but I hold her just in time. I look around me, and it looks like we are about to arrive to "our" city. That curve was the last one, and now there are no more cars in the highway. At the distance, I think I can see our fortress. I wonder if the Commander will let Hope stay. I really wasn't sure when Nate asked me. She was very, _very_ strict about this kind of things, and if she doesn't agree, there is not much thing we can do to change her veredict. But I shall be optimist: thinking positively and with effort, good things can happen to one, even in this messed up world.

Finally, we enter the city. Home, sweet home.

**A/N: Any fan of "Alone in the Dark" (the original one)? Because that game is DA BOMB. It was fucking hard, but totally worth it. Well, I shall go now, see ya next week! Sorry again! See ya next friday!**


	8. Vulcan Style

**A/N: okay guys I got only a few minutes, so this will be quick. Yeah, this quick.**

Jodie

"…And then, BLAM! I threw my spear just through the eye of the Cyclops, killing him, and saving Nathan and Hope" Almost everybody is here in the yard, listening as I relate our scouting mission. Little Pablo looks amazed.

"No way! Jodie you are da best!" yells the kid. I laugh. That kid always makes me crack a smile.

"And what happened next?" asks Valery, who is a few inches taller than Pablo.

"We…" The Commander appears from the door that led to our nursery room. And she have that look, the kind of _come here before I get mad_. "Sorry, gotta go, but Nate will tell you, right Nate?"

I go before he can even complain, leaving him alone to handle the crowd. I bet he's pissed off. He dedicates me a dead stare. He is piss off. Anyway, I enter the nursery, and for my surprise, Hope is conscious, and she doesn't look angry, terrified or nothing, maybe a little concern, and resignation. Now, she notices I am here. She just looks at me, confused.

"Jo-Jodie…"

I see this coming, I swear I did.

"Okay Hope, take it easy…"

"Thanks" I become mute.

"Wait, what? You're not angry? Or sad or… something?"

She makes a grimace.

"Well, I'm not exactly happy you know, but at least you two save my life" I was about to answer, but she carries on. "And c'mon girl, I met a satyr!"

Grover laughs nervously. "Oh, stop it, you".

"Are you done?" asks the Commander to the satyr. He finishes making a knot to hold the bandages and nods. "Good. You can go now, Grover" he goes, and then she says: "Now, young lady, you will tell me exactly how do you found Nathan and Jodie. If you lie, I will know. And if you lie, I will kick you out of here. Got it?"

Hope remains unaltered. He has a challenging expression.

"No problem old lady, where I shall begin?"

The interrogatory went without a problem. Sometimes, the Commander looked at me to confirm Hope's words. I nod every time. She told our leader the same story that she told us back at the storage room. I add the journal information about the number of Cyclopes when she mentioned her captured friend. After ten really _long_ minutes, the Commander stops it.

"Fair enough. You can stay. However, you will have duties just as everyone. I don't care about that leg. And until you gain our total trust, one mistake, one tiny error, only one reason to suspect from you, and you are dead. Understood?" says seriously the Commander.

Hope nods, smiling.

"Got ya."

"Your duties start tomorrow. Go ask Grover to give you a crutch."

Then the Commander and her cane go away, probably to her office, or maybe to check if everything is in its place. She was always that cautious, and I try to copycat that caring.

"Ready to go?" I ask her.

"Hell yeah! C'mon, give me your shoulder" I help her standing and we both go to see Grover, who must be at the yard, listening to Nate.

Just as we go outside, the crowd among Nathan flees. Grover stays to talk with him. When they see us approaching, my favorite satyr asks:

"How is that bandage working, girl?"

"Exceptionally good! Thanks again and, by the way, the old lady told me to ask you for a crutch."

"Ah! Of course. My bad. And she is the Commander, remember it girl. Come here, I can take you." Grover says as the offers to carry Hope in his arms.

"Nah. I better get use to this… Walking "style"."

"Sure thing!" exclaimed him, and then both, satyr and crippled girl walk together towards what it is kind of sanctuary of Grover, in which he lays in his free time and maintain contact with earth, or something like that, I'm not really into all that crazy-goat-nature stuff.

"I guess the Commander agreed Hope staying." Nathan commented.

"Well, yeah!"

The Commander didn't have many options anyways: before moving to this city, our group was huge. We used to live in a not big, yet not small hotel, and we considered ourselves as a "tiny town". But all that came to an end with the arrival of him. He was a stupid man, always taking unnecessary risks; I still wonder how he could make it to the middle twenties. The thing is he too was a demigod, a son of Bacchus. The Commander tried infinitely of teaching him, but he always refused. One day, he got bitten outside the hotel. We searched for him for days, but he not appeared. A few weeks later, a small group of copperfaces surprised us and broke in. He was with them. We were about to kill them all, but we couldn't. Every man and woman who got near him started acting paranoid, without control of them. We had to run. Later, the Commander deduced that it was the madness of the half-blood turned that provoke our friends to went mad. She said that she had seen it before, but with a daughter of Aphrodite, who developed a different power. She calls the turned demigods as "Traitors", just as the original one, the now god who made the world how it is now. Since then, our group never surpass the twenty five members. And we _need_ numbers to survive in this chaotic world. Nathan nods.

"Okay."

"Umm… Nate?"

"What?"

"If you are not tired and, you know, not have any problems with, you like to train a little bit? Just for fun!"

He looks at me, showing no emotion at all, maybe only boredom, or tiredness, or pissed off with me for letting him with the others survivors. He shrugs.

"Exercising is never bad."

"Great! Let's go."

We go to the "training area" of the courtyard, I pick up a wooden spear and he the same sword of this morning. Without my riot armor, I can move much faster, and fight at my own pace. The Commander told me that, while using a spear, my best advantage is the length of it. By keeping the distance, I should be able of harming my opponents while they not (of course, only if they carry a short-range weapon). Even after having fought me countless times, Nate still unable of defeating me. Now, he tries with a feint from the left, but I anticipate his move with an open blow of my spear. Before he can attack again, I strike to his legs, make him fall and put my weapon in his chest. He surrenders and we start again.

We go on like this for like half an hour, and then change to hand-to-hand combat, which both the Commander and Grover emphasize its importance nowadays. We fight this way for the same amount of time, and when neither of us could keep it any longer, we stop training. I go to the bathroom, and found a shower ready, with hot water. After all, going out there, risking my life and bring food and weapons had its rewards.

I take a quick bath (Nathan probably also has hot water, so I don't want to spoil it for him), dry myself with an old towel. Next, I put on my bra, a clean gray ragged t-shirt, my favorite "home" pants and my only shoes. The rest of the evening, well, night by this time, pass by as usual: we all have dinner, some of the men started with they watch guards while the rest of us go to sleep. After such a tiring day, my sleeping bag and two bed sheets for extra cold protection were like a paradise in the middle of the pandemonium we live in.

**A/N: so sorry about spelling/grammar mistakes! Whenever I can I will correct this one, okay see ya next friday, and don't worry: once my internet gets back I will not delay on uploading. Cheers!**


	9. Long Machete

Nathan

After cleaning Glace, I proceed to sharpen it. For that, here in the camp we have some whetstones back in the armory, so I grab one, go to the yard, sit down comfortably in one of the benches and start to restore to its usual sharpness. The first time I did this; just a week after I found Glace, I almost cut out an entire finger. But now, I am able of doing it the proper way taking not much time. I was in this when Hope comes around.

"Quite a long machete, huh?" She says with a smile.

I look at Glace.

"Not that long."

She laughs.

"I didn't … ah forget it, how you doin'?"

"Good." I remain silent for a moment, then add "how's your leg?"

She sits next to me.

"It still hurts, but not that much" says as she shrugs. I continue to sharp my weapon as she says nothing. "I... Just wanted to say thanks, okay?"

I raise an eyebrow.

"Really?"

She sighs.

"You saved my life."

I look at the floor.

"Yes, but if I just carried you, maybe Grover could have healed the wound and you would have your leg now…"

"Hey." She stops me holding my left hand with her right. It feels weird. "You did what it needed to be done; I would do it, no doubt about it!"

What she says makes sense, and I really don't know why I am feeling all this shit. The Commander teach me well: I am able of reacting quickly enough and of making what is "right", what is best for the group. If it was Jodie's leg which I have to cut, I would not have the remorse I have now. I don't get it. It is because I didn't know much Hope? Because she was little more than an stranger? Or it was something else?

I finish sharpening Glace, so I stop and stand up freeing from her hand.

"I guess you are right. What about your shotgun, anyway?"

She smiles.

"The Commander showed great interest on it. I asked her if she could repair it, and she said yes! Actually, I'm gonna check how she does it, so if it get broken again, I could be able of repairing by myself. Thanks Nate!"

And she goes, not really fast, but with enthusiasm, towards our blacksmith-defenses room. It's in there where we repair our weapons, improve them and learn about defensive tactics with the Commander. Also, we store there planks and mobile structures in case of being attacked. A wooden barricade of five feet tall, thin planks for the stairway, and even a mini catapult are part of our arsenal for defense.

The rest of the day was boring. I had lunch, train a few hours with Grover, Jodie and Lenny. Took a cold-water shower, and then patrol the perimeter of the school until the night falls. In my way to the old cafeteria, Robert tells me that today will be an "offering night".

Offering nights are those nights that we get together a portion of all our food, make a big fire at the barbeque of the school, and burn it in honor to the gods. As usual, it was the Commander's idea. She said that by making this tribute, thankful for the food, they will help us. Of course, these offerings are conducted only once a month, since we never were abundant in food. More than one newcomer tried to stop with this tradition, but the Commander leadership was unquestionable. Plus, she argued that with no frequent sacrifices in the Copper Age, they will appreciate ours even more.

I am still unsure about how the gods help us, having in account that most of the time they are trying to hold their position against the Dark Angel. The Commander once told me that finding Jodie was a gift from the gods. I say it was luck, pure chance. It's hard to believe that there are some fancy beings above the clouds, sitting in their thrones and just making whatever they want. But with such proof of their existence like are Jodie powers, the monsters, Grover itself, there were no other option but accepting their existence. I imagine normal people also had hard times facing such a mess up truth, and realizing that everything they knew was a lie or just a little drop in the sea of madness that implies the existence of the Greek and roman gods and myths. Not to mention the sudden turn of the vast majority of mortals into the Copper Ones, making them forever hungry, almost mindless, becoming the principal threat to the human race (and all others mortal beings).

So we are all gathered in the cafeteria, and the Commander is in front of us, next to food piled up on the barbeque, just to be offered to the gods. She begin with "Homeric hymns", which are some sort of invocation or celebration for the original pantheon, then she mentions all the other gods that were added after the second Titans War, by petition of Percy Jackson. Now, the Commander brings the heat on and ignites the food.

"Gods of the Olympus! Accept this humble sacrifice, and hear our prayers." She makes a respectful pause. "Help all of us to be strong enough to endure and survive, fade our past scars and move away from us all evil. May the Traitor fall."

"May the Traitor fall." We all say in loud voice, to give the prayer more intensity. The smoke of the burned food escapes from the room, elevating to the skies. For a very little moment, I think I hear a thunder. Is probably a storm coming.

The next day, after having breakfast, I start to exercise. First, I warm up. I do the stretching series that the Commander taught me, which includes "run slowly in the place", "jumping in the place" and of course classical stretching. Now, I am ready to start. I was about to get into it, when Jodie and Hope appears. She's wearing a ponytail.

"Hey Nate!" They say.

"Hi girls."

"Just so you know" Jodie starts. "The Commander wants Hope to be able of fighting and "being useful in combat", so she asked me to help her to fight while using her crutch."

"I know I won't be able of properly using my shotgun, but I'm confident about using my "little one" " Hope says, as she unsheathes her butcher knife.

"Whoa! We don't use real weapons while training! We use wooden ones, which would not harm us, at least not much."

Hope seems like disappointed, but she shrugs.

"Oh well, no problem. How we start?"

"Try to warm up" I intervene. "Yeah, always warm up!" adds Jodie.

While Jodie shows Hope where the wooden weapons are, I carry on exercising. Then, the girls get in front on me, giving me their backs, and Jodie helps Hope to stretch. After a few war up exercises, they decide to lie on their stomach, lift up and hold that position. I couldn't avoid noticing how tight Hope pants are. With no apparent reason, I feel like the temperature rise a little bit. I look up to the sky. A lot of clouds, in fact the whole fortress is in the shadow.

I finish my training earlier, and I go to my room. I drop in my bed, thinking. _It's so weird_. It almost feels like a necessity.

Later that day, I am in guard at the advance post roof with Lenny. The sun, still covered by massive clouds, seems to be heading down.

"Isn't gorgeous?" Lenny says, looking at the imminent dawn.

"Gorgeous?" I look at it more carefully. Apollo's chariot is almost out of sight, taking the sun with it. The clouds are getting impaled by the sun light, making them colored. There are oranges and red tinted. But nothing remarkable or special at all. "It's just a dawn. It happens every day."

He stares at me.

"Yes, but only once a day. And I am not here every day. And c'mon dude! You can't deny that view" replies Lenny, waving around his arms, demanding an explanation. I kinda smile.

"No, I can´t. Anyway, your guard shouldn't be finishing?"

He laughs.

"So you wanna get rid of me? Okay, you ask for it. I am leaving. 'Luck having such a good conversation with my relay."

He goes and leaves me alone. I always enjoy these times with myself; never get bored of the silence. _Hmm_. I guess he wasn't completely wrong. It is a beautiful scene. Only of course taking out the horrible context in which we are all in. However, everything seems like solving out. We get food and blankets for the winter, a lot of shivs in case of danger, a revolver and a celestial shotgun, perfect for big monsters. I wonder how long it will last. In my experience, good times are always short. With no exceptions.

"What a dawn, huh?"

I turn around and find Hope getting closer. I don't hate her or anything, but I am not exactly in the mood to be near her. I turn again, ignore her and keep looking to the horizon. I hear her sighs at my left.

"It's getting cold, isn't it?"

"I guess so."

She looks at me.

"Nate, can I tell you something?"

I look her back, concerned or something.

"Sure…" I say slowly. She sighs again.

"It is about my previous group" I nod. "I… I am glad I am not with them anymore." She sees my expression of confusion and continues "They were… mad. Bad people, every one of them. Our leader, Oliver, made us ambush and attack others people…"

"Many groups do that."

"Steal them and then burn them as offering to a god?" She replies with angst face, and then look down. "I was the only one that didn't enjoy it. But the rest… they all did it with passion, without any regrets."

What she said is horrible. I have never heard of such maniacs in my whole life. Nevertheless, it wasn't so different from regular ambushers. The Commander has been very strict in terms of attacking other groups. She stated that we shall be neutral, always minded to establish an alliance with other people. But if they show to be hostiles, we would defend ourselves, naturally. That was exactly what happened with the punks: they discovered us, wanted our place, and attacked us.

"That's… not good." I can see in her face true contrition. She also seems altered, so I comfort her by palming her shoulder. "But don't feel bad about it: you did what you have to do to survive. As everyone."

She raise her head, still bothered but not sad. She smiles.

"Yeah, you're right Nate. Thank you." She says, looking at me. I nod.

"Yes."

Without her crutch, she would be of mi size, maybe a little taller, but now I am slightly taller than her. An airflow strikes us gently, so I breathe into it. I always loved the feeling of breathing deep just when the wind is passing by. It makes me feel alive. More alive than usual, if that's possible. I look at Hope. She has her eyes closed, and a grim of satisfaction. I guess we both like the wind in da face. Her golden hair dances with the flow, making it even more beautiful. Nowadays, it's really strange that someone have blonde hair, most of the people have it brown of black. It is, indeed, a one in a million, if there are a million persons.

Then I notice something at the distance. I turn my face looking at it; still can't recognize what it is. I tap Hope in her shoulder and go to the telescope made by the Commander with magnifier glasses founded in the school, and look at whatever it is on the road.

"Oh Martyrs…"

"What?" says Hope, coming to the telescope.

I let her see through it, at her reaction makes me not wait at all.

"Fucking… shit."


	10. Waiting the Tsunami

Nathan

"C´mon! Let's get this barricade in its place!" says nor low or loud Grover, who´s leading the defenses preparation. He, Lenny, Carolina, Robert and I are pushing our barricade made out of wooden planks, some concrete blocks and a lot of nails and tape.

When the Commander was noticed about the incoming horde of Copper Ones, she ordered the immediate preparation of our defenses. I thought she would get really mad at us, but it seems she decided to postpone the scolding and prepare for the creatures arrival. While we are here setting all up, Jodie, Kaori, Jack, Tristan and the Commander herself are outside, getting ready the outer defenses, which consists, mostly, in moving cars in order to stop or at least slow down the advance of the horde.

There's like two minutes to midnight, and the moonlight makes everything at the school look both darker and mysterious. But that doesn't matter: a disheartening number of copperfaces is approaching, and we must be ready when they come. When the Commander gave the order, more than one questioned it. They said it would be better to pack all we could and escape from the place. But of course, the Commander persuasion and logic mitigated every other opinion except from stand and fight. And I agreed with that: we spent too many time fortifying this school, our school, for that just by the view of some Copper Ones abandon it and run away.

Finally, we put the barricade in its place, just where the principal ladder ends. Robert and I jump across and the other ones passed us two-thirds of the spikes, so when the Commander group returns they will have a clean way to the safety of the fortress. After doing that, Carolina and Lenny joined us and we four go outside to move cars. Foreseeing a situation like this one, the Commander made mark off the street with lines, indicating were we should put the cars. I open the door of a green one (we had unlocked all doors of the cars near our place) and turn the steering wheel as the rest pushes it to one of the lines. We just have finishing putting the first half of the cars in its place when the Commander's group arrived.

"Youngsters! Go up, help finishing the preparations and take some rest." orders the Commander, with firm voice. Jodie, Lenny and I were going, seeing this she hawks kinda loud. Lenny notices, and stays with the Commander. "Now let's carry on moving the cars."

As we go to the central yard, I notice that, in the roof, the upper catapults are being installed. Grover comes from the main hall.

"Commander sent ya right?" Jodie and I nod "Good. You two go helping with the roof catapults, and tell the brothers to help down here. When you finish, come back here."

At the time we get to the roof, Mary, Susan and Edmond had already finished setting up the left catapult and are just starting with the one at the right side of the school. We sent Susan and Edmond down, and help Mary with the -mainly wooden- construction. Since her is kind of an expert with the catapults, it does not take too much time. We raise the planks, recessed and tie them with rope. Put the swing arm and the spoon together, and then the counterweight, which consists in sharp junk, and we are done. Now we finished, the three of us go down, tired, but ready to keep helping.

When we get to the yard, the Commander is talking to Kaori, Edmond, Carolina and Robert. She finishes with them, and they go to the armory. She sees us coming.

"The catapults are ready, Commander." Says Mary. She nods.

"Very well. You go to the post, bring here the bag with all the weapons, gear up, and then join the bushwhackers." Mary nods and starts running towards the post. "Nathan, Jodie: go to kitchen, grab all the crates and put them in the van."

"Why if we…"

"There's no time kids, go!" says the Commander, and left us.

We both go to the kitchen, find six crates with our canned food and many water bottles. Each grab one and carries them to the garage, I open the back door of the van and put the crates inside. After two more travels from the kitchen, we're done. They really weren't that heavy, but anyways I am feeling exhausted. And judging Jodie's face, I bet she is the same way.

Once more, Grover catches us in the yard. He rapidly examines us with his look.

"For Pan's beard! You sure look tired. C'mon, go take some sleep." Jodie was about to complain, but the satyr raise his hand and says "Nah ah. You two have worked well tonight, and tomorrow we need you both at full energy. Hurry up; take advantage of the few hours of night that you still have. See ya in the morning." says, and go running to the walls, probably to play his flute to make the vines grow.

Jodie sighs.

"Well, "see ya in the morning"."

"Yeah."

We high five and go to our own rooms. In mine, Jack is sleeping, sprawled over his bed sheets, and with a leg outside. I circle the pile of chairs and desks, jump in my bed, cover myself and close my eyes. Luckily, I get asleep really fast.


	11. Bushwhachers

**A/N: HELLO EVERYBODY! How are you doing? I know I know, since chapter 9 ( I think) i haven't got any time to write this little but still satisfactory (AT LEAST TO ME(wow sorry about the caps, too lazy to write all that again)) space where I can "talk" directly to you, my so loved and admired readers (I really admire you guys and girls, I mean, I would never be able of keep reading such a "long" fanfiction). Anyway, today I have for you a "special" chapter, mainly because the POV. Yeah, a character briefly mentioned in last chapter. Hope you like it!**

Kaori

The plan is simple: just getting the attention of the horde, drive them away from the school, keep them hunting us all around the city and, finally, trick them out of the city. Of course, it was far easier said than done. And even if we were able of fooling the copperjaws, those nasty could still sense and find it anyway. But the Commander, no, the entire group is relying on us.

"How longer should we wait?" asks my dear Edmond, always so impatient.

"Only a little more, honey."

Currently we are waiting behind a fence to the horde to get close enough from the city. I swear I have never seen so many of them together, and I have dealt with hordes in the past, but not one this numerous. They advance pretty fast to be Copper Ones, and that intrigues me. Anyway, they cross the imaginary line I made, so it's time to start.

"Okay guys, let's do this. Mary…"

"Yeah I know, go hide and make sure the horde sticks together. Good luck." She said, before she goes running to a car and hiding in the back of it.

Now, we stand up, letting the copperjaws see us. And they do, judging for their suddenly slight grow in the volume of their growls. But just in case, the four of us wave our arms in the sky and shout them. I always enjoyed calling them bastards and remember all their family, I guess it is a good, and (why not?) healthy way to make catharsis. Of course my father would had never agreed, he was much more disciplined and aligned with the orthodox way of doing things, but unlike him, I was no military.

Those guys are right in front of us, and they would eat us right away if the wooden, with vines all over it fence weren't to stop them. It is not really that big, and inevitably they will overpass it, however, we will make it worth. The first copperjaw gets stuck in it, just in front of me, so I raise my handy axe and blow away its head with it. Before the mutilated part fall to the ground, there are already four more Copper Ones. While I slash the brain of one, my love stabs another one through the eye with a shiv, Robert smashes with his deadly improved two-by-four and Carolina makes a hole in one's face with her spear. Now, more than six of them get to the fence and start to push, making it creak. We continue holding our ground, killing them in the place, making a wall of bodies between the incoming ones and us. But they are too many, and the fence is not that strong, and breaks down. We begin to retreat, and I shot a Copper One who was getting too near with my shorty, blowing up its head.

Running in the streets, we are driving them away from our fortress, leading them through the borderlines of the old, covered by plants city. To not lose them or them ignore us, we began running slow, but those fuckers are, somehow, faster than most of the copperjaws, so we accelerate up to the perfect pace to keep out of their reach but near enough to keep them engaged. After ten blocks, I give the signal of stopping, so we do. With an advantage of half a block, we manage to reach the marked corner. We jump over the two cars strategically positioned and take a moment to recover the breath.

"_Puta madre_! Those fuckers are too quick!" says, gasping, Carolina. And I couldn't agree more. I hoped the fence would last a little longer, but their number was too high for it.

Things are not looking good. They are frickingly fast, their number is astonishing, and we could not get far enough. And in top of that, we haven't even make a third of the planned way to drive them out.

I pass my forehand for my brow, taking away some sweat, product of the running. I look at my partners. Edmond's face is covered by tiny drops of sweat, but I still find it gorgeous. Robert is sitting down, breathing heavily with his eyes closed. The most unaffected seems to be Carolina, who is keeping an eye in the approaching copperjaws. I turn the head and look at them. _Fuck_. They are really near, so I make the rest of them to stand up and get ready. I already know that we can't hold our position for too long, and each time we had to run, we would last even less in the next stop, I have to do something!

I look around, desperate, expecting to find something that could help us fight the Copper Ones. But before I could figure something out, they reach us. Instead of circling the cars, they just walk to them and try to grab us with their hands. Edmond and I get up in the cars, one on each one, and attack them in the heads. Carolina takes care of those who are between the two cars with her spear, and Robert waits until they start to pass by the car, he will give us enough time to get the fuck out.

Suddenly, the cars begin to move, so we jump out and run again, while Robert kills a couple of copperjaws and then follows us. The next checkpoint is in a gas station, right in the middle of the city, which means we have to run twenty blocks more. I wonder if Robert will be able of making it, he seems exhausted. And with reason, running around with a wooden plank with deadly, sharp metal stuff in the end must not be easy.

We are already by the first half, and then I trip over and fall hard to the concrete, stamping my forearms to it. The group stops while my love helps me to get up, I thank him and we carry on. Both my forearms and ankles hurts, but we must continue. The horde is like breathing on us, and we are tired. These mother fuckers shouldn't be so fast. Something must be wrong.

Finally, we get to the gas station. I can barely breathe, and my companions look just like me. And Robert is too damn pale, I'm afraid he could not be able of continuing running. While them sit and lie down to maximize the few moments of rest, I look back to the horde. They are in our same block, and they are getting closer too fast. We cannot wait any longer.

"Guys!" I say, with a drowned voice. "They are coming, c'mon now, let's get going."

"I… I need water" says, barely audible, Robert, who is in his knees. I go to him, get from my fanny a water bottle and handle to him. He opens it and drinks like there is no tomorrow.

"And I can't hold like this much more" whispers Edmond.

"Yeah… me either…" gasps Carolina

They seem awfully exhausted, and they sweat it's all over their respective shirts and clothes. I am probably the same, but refuse to take a look.

"We cannot make it…" Whispers my dear, crestfallen. He looks at me, with his log color eyes. "I think we shall stand."

"Are you crazy?!" says Robert. "We will die!"

"But at least we would have driven away the horde from the school." replies Carolina. "I agree with Edmond: there's nothing we can do about this."

Robert seems upset. Just like me. How couldn't I, being about to die? At least, I will die knowing that my dead meant something to the group. We would die saving our friends. We will die like heroes, just as the demigod martyrs the Commander talks about. _I can do that_. The copperjaws are in the corner, in front of us. Instead of coming to us, they stop for a moment, like they were sensing something. Then, they turn, taking a street that leads to the fortress.

"No! They sense them! We gotta…"

Carolina and my dear stand up and run towards them trying to call their attention. But their effort is futile: they are marching like an army of death to the school, making no case to my friends.

I help Robert get up and, with our last efforts; we run, join the others two and surpass the horde. We stop at thirty feet from them. None of the four of us is in condition to carry on much more, but somehow we must alert the Commander. We don't know where could be Mary, or if she still alive, so it rests on our shoulders this mission. But we can't make it. Somehow, the copperjaws are faster than usual, and they would catch us before we get to the fortress. There is only one thing to do. I give my fanny to Carolina, who seems to be slightly less exhausted than all us. I take out my shorty.

"Okay guys, hear me up: I will stay and give you some time, but you need to get to the school and warn the Commander, got it?"

"What?! No! I will never let you to die!" shouts Edmond, with a horrified expression in his face. I get near and whisper in her ears "Don't worry; we will see each other again". Then I kiss him passionately under the light of the moon and the stars, which were looking so beautiful in such a horrible night.

I advance a feet towards the horde and shot two of them who were in the front. I shot a third one in the chest, making it fall. I pass my empty gun to Edmond.

"Give it to the Commander, you all will need it. Now go!"

"Thanks, Kaori" whispers Carolina.

"Yeah, thanks" says Robert, saluting with a nod.

"But Kaori…" starts Edmond.

"Fucking GO!"

With tears in his eyes, he put my shorty in his pocket and goes with the others to the fortress. I turn around and slash the head of a silent copperjaw who was just next to me. "Die with honor" once said my dad. I like to think he would be proud. _Yeah, he is_.

I start slashing their heads wildly, at a rampage. They scratch me, but I don't care. My kill count reaches fifteen before they bite me in the right shoulder and pushes me to the ground. Then I see how one of them jumps high in the air, and lands on me. I swear I see him smile. It open its mouth, letting me see his sharp jaws, and ends me.

**A/N: Hello again! Thanks to all of you for reading so much of my story, thank you for taking time of your day to read a fanfiction of some weird guy on the internet with terrible grammar and questionable sanity. okay okay, I better stop or I will begin to tear bending (any avatar fan?) So yeah, thank you thank you thank you, specially to you 17headlines (a really weird user name if you ask me lol), for all that support and well, review. About reviews, please please please! I want to improve people! If you take 5 (five, only five) minutes to do a mini- review about my chapter/s pointing out what did you like and what did you not, you would be helping me A LOT. Okay, that's all I guess, again, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and don't forget to review! Ciao!**


	12. Tidal wave

**A/N: Sup guys! How you doin? Me great, thanks for asking. So, idk, hope you enjoyed the last chapter, I sure did while writing it, mostly because they were not the "main" characters so what the heck. Okay, without any further presentation or whatever, here you have ( for those 12-15 readers that keep up with the story with some regularity), enjoy!**

Jodie

When I wake up, the bushwhackers had already returned, but not all of them. My friend Kaori stayed and sacrificed herself in order to let the others come back safe. They warn us about the unusual speed of these Copper Ones, and how they did not fall in the trickery. Edmond arrived crying in silence and went directly to his room, or so Lenny told me. And there is no sign of Mary yet. They have been resting since their arrival, so they are not here right now, and we could use any help right now.

The Commander had reunited us all in front of the main staircase. We are all formed, just like she taught us. In the stairs, right between our barricade and two cars, are Tristan, Susan and Jenny. They will retreat as the horde advances through the stairs, and then jump across the barricade and join us. I have Nathan and Lenny to my left, while Edgar and Jack stand by my right. And just at our backs, the Commander, Grover, Mike, Paul, little Pablo and Valery stand, ready to assists us at the second those copperfaces surpass the barricade.

Now I can hear the growls of the horde, all of us can, and they look terrified. By order of our leader, we all pray for Athena and Ares to give us strength and survive this incoming battle. When we finish, the Commander step forward, and talk to us:

"Men and women! Brothers and sisters! We arrive here three months ago, and discover an abandoned school, full of dark and bitter memories. But we took it, and make it our own. By hard work and long hours, we make it what it is now: a fortress, OUR fortress, and now, those Copper Ones are threatening it to destroy it, we shall let them?"

"No!" We all say.

"No! Today, we will face our hardest enemy. They had already taken one of us. But I believe in something. I believe in the strength of your arms! In the courage of your hearts! And I know we will NOT let those monsters in! Let's avenge Kaori, who sacrifice for us all!"

We all shout to the air, full of renovated bravery and ready to kill hundreds of copperfaces. Then, they appear behind the cars, so the Commander order Paul and Valery to go to the roof to use the catapult. I enlarge my spear and make it spin in my hand. Nate and Lenny exchange some words at the same time they warm up a little.

Susan, Jenny and Tristan begin to attack the heads of the incoming creatures with spears. Then, a big piece of the roof violently lands after the cars, smashing some Copper Ones and giving the three of them a moment. But that moment lasts less than a minute, and they are again facing tons of them. Suddenly, the cars begin to move. Seeing this, Tristan and Jenny try to hold the cars in order to not let them get upside down while Susan get up in one car and makes holes in those bastards heads. Another boulder crashes in the mass of copperfaces; however they do nothing but advance.

Suddenly, the strength of the accumulated creatures overpass the car's and they start to get upside down. They all jump back to the stair. Without losing any second, the copperfaces get over the cars and try to scratch or bite the defensive trio, but again they jump backwards, letting the scum to get to them. The Copper Ones tries to attack them, but they can't advance through the stair without tripping over, thanks to the thin planks in the steps.

My friends hold their ground for about five minutes, spearing to the face when a new intruder gets close. But then, of those gets killed and lands at Tristan's feet, making him fall into the pile of dead copperfaces. Susan tries to get him out, but before she could four more Copper Ones raise and bite Tristan in the face, unleashing a cry of pain from him. Jenny gets horrified by this, and stays still. Seeing this, Susan grabs her by the shirt and pulls both of them out from the horde. While the creatures eat Tristan, they manage their way up to us. I drop my spear and tend a hand at the women. Lenny assist us, and we make them pass across the barricade. They look exhausted, and Jenny stills with the staring.

Grover comes and takes her to his place in order to reassure and rest. Susan decides to stay at the second line of defense. The Copper Ones will need at least two minutes to reach the barricade, so I take my time to close my eyes, deeply breathe, and then, slowly, exhale. I look at the horde. Even having tripping over all steps, they have already finished with the stair, and they are approaching our tiny wall. The first two who got here get themselves impaled by the spikes, however the third one plays it smart and tend his arms over the barricade from a spike less spot. But I was ready, so in the moment he gets to the defensive structure I impale him in the head with my spear. Soon, more of them get stuck in the barricade, trying to get their hands on us. The five of us start to slash, smash, stab, stab and smash, respectively, the heads of the incoming ones.

We kept like this like for five minutes, and then the Commander and Mike come in our help, shooting bullets directly to their heads. Little Pablo climbs on a chair he brought from the kitchen and start shooting as well. When the Commander empties her clip, she goes with Carolina's son, take his gun and send him with a message to the upper catapult, where Paul and Valery are. After a while, in which we all give our best to hold off the copperfaces, we fall back as a big piece of concrete violently crashes in the stair, squashing all of the nearer Copper Ones.

But it's not over. We all can still hear them behind the concrete, crawling, searching for a way to come to us. And they do. Too fricking fast. Normally, they would take; at least, four minutes to figure out they can climb over the rock, but it only took them a bunch of seconds. They are already walking to us over the huge concrete mass, so they will fall directly in the yard. I must admit, it was a risky move from the Commander. She probably already know that dropping a rock in the stairs would let them enter easily, however these ones have shown an extraordinary way in the matter of finding a way to their objective.

At the moment the first of them falls inside, Lenny gets to her and strikes her in the head with his improved bat. It only takes him a single blow of his deadly instrument. However, before we could get to help him, a Copper One appears from behind the concrete and lands in Lenny, pushing him to the ground. Viciously, it scratches his chest and then bites his neck, spreading our friend blood all over the ground. The copperface raise and look at us.

It's slightly taller than the average, with sharp nails and teeth, which let see as is gasping. Just next to its right eye it has a scar. It looks like a stick, with some curve lines at the end of it. For some reason, the scar shines. The Commander gives a step back.

"Can't be…"

"It is a…?" starts Jack, who stops at the view of a dozen copperfaces entering the yard and advancing to us.

And then, I realize what it is the scar. It's a caduceus.

"He is a Traitor…"

The alluded darkly smiles, and jumps directly to me.

**A/N: Oh yes, ANOTHER "cliffhanger". What can I say? I love these crazy ones, they make the ending of a chapter much better than regular endings! Or maybe it's just me. Anyway, stay tuned for more demigod action, bloody battles and suspense! See ya guys!**


	13. The aftermath

**A/N: Sup guys, how you doin'(joey style). Ready for chapter almost exclusive for battle, heroics, friendship, love, black lawyers and even whales? Well, here it is, fuck waiting, right?**

Jodie

That fucking beast lands and pushes me to the ground. It tries to bite me in the face, but luckily the protection of the helmet stops him. I punch him in the head with my left one, then again with my right fist and push him with my knee, getting him off me. I grab my lance from the floor and turn back, expecting him to be attacking. Instead, he is attacking Jack and, before I could do anything, he bites him in the face, trashing it. I run for it, jump to attempt stabbing the Traitor in the back; however he reacts and turn apart my weapon, making me away.

He stands up and attacks me with his short claws. I cover myself with my arms, though I get no harm since the armor is too thick for his long nails. I back up and try again to impale him with my spear, yet again the mercurial copperface manages to avoid and redirect my frontal attacks. I change of strategy, however, and roll to his left to then bury my spear in his ribs, making him yell.

He takes my weapon with both hands and starts spinning, carrying me over. Then he takes away the lance from his body, letting it go, with me included, far to the stairs. While getting up, I see how everyone is holding the Copper Ones. Grover has returned from his place, and is blowing around his club, breaking copper heads. Even Hope is keeping up fairly well, fighting next to the Commander, who has a pistol in her right and Katoptris in her left, then I feel something, so I turn to my right and impale just in time a copperface who was on its way to me.

More and more of them are coming from upside the giant concrete mass, making impossible to take a breath. Without noticing, I got trapped between them and the barricade, preventing me from an easy way out. I kill a bunch of them, trying to get out but without any success when from nowhere appears Nate, who slash with Glace and stabs with his knife.

"I hold them, you take the Traitor!" says in a worried manner.

Before go searching for it, I take from the floor my shield, which I had left next to the barricade when the horde overpass it. It was made by the Commander itself from a wooden table taken from the school desks and improved with a pair iron layers, making it a solid and useful defensive tool, however it's heavy and I rather not carry it around.

I look around for the Traitor, and discover him attacking the Commander. She tries to keep the distance shooting him in the chest, but it seems to be not working. However, the one with the scar couldn't either land any hit since our leader was able of avoid and even rolling pretty well considering her age. I run to them and jump with my shield up to the Traitor, pushing him away from the Commander. She nods with gratitude and goes to assist the others.

I face towards him, in combat position, as he gets up and charges. I let him get pretty near and then I blow my shield and stump it in his head, making him flinch. Taking that window, I move forward and pierce him with my spear, making a hole just in his sternum. He yells of pain and then hit me with both arms, throwing me several feet back.

While trying to reincorporate, he takes out my weapon, throw it away and pounce to me, with intentions of biting and tearing. I cover again with my protected arms, however, now he starts punching me in the stomach. _Fuck._ I try to push him out, but he retains my legs under his knees. We struggle a little, and then, using my powers and my own strength, I get him out from me and roll away.

He attacks again, but I repel him with a blow of my shield, giving me enough time to take out my survival knife. The Traitor starts once more with the offensive, but now I counter attack with a kick in the chest, right in his recent wound, stopping him in the place and hurting him even more. As fast as I can, I get to him, grab the Copper One by the neck and stab my knife in his right temple three times.

He falls already dead, with an empty look on its eyes. Then, his caduceus scar burns with a brown gloss, and when it finishes, there is no sign of the scar. From that moment, all the copperfaces that are inside the fortress become slower. I notice easily, as now a bunch of them take double the time to reach me than before with the Traitor alive. _So, apparently these turned demigods have some type of "aura" effect on the other Copper Ones…_

I run away from the incoming ones and make my way through the crowd in order to find my spear. While still searching, I find Hope next to the kitchen's door, hardly keeping up with a couple of them, so I go towards them to assist her. Stab the back head of a copper-she and kick the other one in the chest, making it fall. Hope takes advantage and bends over a little to her left, where is her butcher knife and kills the fallen one. She joins me and we continue with my search, and after a while I achieve to have a glimpse of my weapon: Nate has it, but he is being constantly attacked by a not short group of copperfaces.

We head to him, with our knifes up in the sky. We take our time not only by Hope's missing leg or having to make our way towards him, but also for me. The fight with the Traitor made my tiredness grow _a lot_, and I doubt I could be able of continuing fighting too much longer. However, I had noticed how the number of the herd has significantly decreased since my biggest achievement of the battle. Anyway, we jump into battle, helping our male friend to hold his (actually, now _ours_) ground. When he sees me, he finishes one of them by a clean decapitation, and then hand me my always reliable spear.

Now, with Nate and Hope by my side, a shield and my spear, nothing can't stop me, or at least I feel like that. We three start stabbing; slashing, and smashing Copper Ones like there is no tomorrow. Then, Grover appears from behind us blowing his big bad mace, hitting multiple copperfaces with a single hit. Soon, all the survivors from the battle are fighting together, as one, cornering the last of them to the barricade. Finally, I make my spear go through the head of the last one, and it's over.

I fall on my knees, exhausted. After five seconds of heavy breathing, I look around me: Nathan and Hope are near me, also resting; Carolina is on her knees in front a small body: her son Pablo. Edmond is trying to comfort her, but it seems worthless. Susan is checking herself for any possible wound, while Robert stands, with a sad face, next to the corpse of his friend Jack. From here, I can still see the savaged bodies of Valery and Paul, daughter and father, who died together. Lenny's corpse, as well as Jenny's and Edgard's are also resting in the floor, taking away are victory sensation. Finally, the Commander is talking seriously with Grover and Mike, indicating the barricade, the Copper Ones and our losses.

Then, she calls us all around her in a circle. Grover examines us as fast as he can, looking for bites or scratches. He finds out that Robert has been scratched in his left hand, so he takes him and Mike and Carolina, who are injured to his sanctuary. While Grover guides them there, the Commander orders to the rest of us to start cleaning up all this mess. No victory roar, no emotive speech. Well, if I was her, I wouldn't do it either. Technically we had won, yes, but this victory has costs us an incredibly high price: the half of our people.

We weren't too many to start with, but now, we have been reduced to just a bunch of people. The worst of all is the death of the kids. They were supposed to grow up and become the "next generation" or something like that… They would grow up here, in the school, as children used to before the Copper Age, but now… I restrain a tear. _No. It's not the time to get upset: you must carry on, as always. _

Considering everything that happened, I got away pretty well. No to-worry wounds and my closest friends are safe too. The one I worry more is Carolina: losing her only child must be rough as fuck, and even having demonstrated a strong will power, I'm worried this could be too much for her. I have seen it before, mothers and fathers killing themselves after the death or turn of their sons or daughters. But I can't let that happen. We're gonna need every single hand we have if we want to recover of this massive attack.

Anyway, I shall focus in the task, so me and the others start piling up the bodies of the copperfaces. Nathan and Edmond take the most undamaged inside, so we could later open them and use their copper for several uses.

Suddenly, a noise invades the recently acquired peace. It sounds like Nate's motorbike,_ but it can't be…_

Then, a motorbike with two men appears from the concrete catapult projectile and enters the school. One of them jumps near me and kicks me in the face, stunning me. I heard others motorbikes entering our place. Next, the dude who kicked me grabs me, stands me up, takes off my helmet, immobilize me and put a knife on my throat.

I open my eyes, just to discover how all my friends of the fortress are being threat by several men and a couple of women, all of them with pipes, guns and even a shotgun. They take away all our weapons and force us to go against the wall of the school. Now, one of those who are still in their motorbikes stands up and walks to us. He is skin is pale, with a black, messy hair. He stare us, looking at each one of us. Then, he opens his arms and says:

"Let me introduce ourselves… I am Oliver, and we are the Raiders of Hades."

**A/N: i gotta admit, this is my favorite end since i started this fanfiction. What will happen next? Is that Oliver the same that used to lead Hope former group? Who's gonna narrate the next chapter? Why were the walls made with bricks? All of those question (actually not) and more will be answered in the next chapter: "Ryders reunion". PLease be nice a leave a review, could you? THANK YOU. See ya!**


	14. Ryder's reunion

**A/N: Sup guys? everything fine? Ready for chapter 14? Of course you are. Bfore you jump right to it, may I ask for any kind of recommendation or opinion? What did you like, but yoo didn't... that kind of stuff. Okay, i guess that's all, thanks again and enjoy!**

Hope

_No. It can't be… no way. I am dreaming, yes, that's it! I'm dreaming. I must have pass out after the battle… yes… it's impossible that they…_

"Now, all of you are _our propriety,_ but don't worry, you will soon be… freed."

I open my eyes, only to encounter the terrifying truth I don't want to face: the Raiders are here. Some of the men go inside the school, probably to scan it and raid whatever they can. My former leader, Oliver, is talking as he walks in front of us, looking at each one of his future sacrifices. He is carrying that fucking, arrogant smile in his lips.

"If you cause no problems, we shall treat you the same way. Otherwise, well, I cannot assure your… integrity."

He stands in front of the old lady, analyzing her. He takes her by the chin, but she bites him in the hand.

"Fuck!" He shouts, smacks her twice and punches her face. She lets her head down, but he raises it again. "Do it again and I will assure you get raped so many times you would not be able of sitting again, get it?" He says with a maniac and angry expression. Slowly, the Commander stares at him. "Get it".

"Let me guess: you're the leader of these shitty people and you control them via strict regimen, but still with nice manner, am I right? But it doesn't matter anymore: we are in charge now. Now tell me: how many demigods or legacies are here with you?"

The oldster does not answer, making the cruel leader get even madder. He smiles to us as he open his arms.

"I know! Let's play a game: I will start punching this old sack of bones until the demigods shows up. However, as I am so benevolent, I will give you the chance of confess right now, so this lady would not be injured." He looks at us, still without recognizing me, waiting for an answer. "Anyone? Okay, not a problem."

He punches with strength the chest of the Commander, making her bend in. Next, he hit her in the face with his knee, throwing her to the ground. He was about to start kicking her when Jodie talks.

"Wait! I… I am the demigod."

He stops with the elder and goes towards Jodie. He looks at her riot armor.

"Really? You sure there is no one else? If you lie to me, we will have no choice but violently rape that old woman, so think well your answer." Jodie nods again, confirming that she's the only one "Well, you seem muscular enough, and that armor… hmmm." He turns back. "Hey guys, Hope didn't mention an armored female demigod?"

That pervert Anston pinpoints me with a smile.

"Why don't you ask herself?"

Oliver turns once more, looking at me. All the survivors from the school look as well at me, with faces that claim an explanation or declaring treason. He approaches with narrowed eyes, like trying to recognize me. Finally, he opens them widely.

"No way… you ARE Hope indeed… Wow, just wow. We thought you were dead, why didn't you call back dear?"

"My radio… it get broken." I lie, trying to sound as confident as I can.

"Oh, I'm sure it did. Hmm" he grunts, looking at my leg "What happened to you?"

"A Copper One bitted me, so I get it cut."

"Well, that's a shame. I had no problem of letting you in again if we find you; however, that crotch complicates things."

I know this people are doomed, but I shall not let myself sink with them.

"No, wait! Please, I… I can still do it… every night if you want just… just take me with you, please!" I beg, at the edge of crying. That motherfucker laughs in my face.

"Oh, I'm sorry Hope, but you know the rules: we don't carry anyone, nor elders, sick, weak or crippled, and, sadly, you fit right in that last one, so no, Hope. And c'mon, did you really think I will let you stay with us just because I fucked you regularly? I had you smarter than that. Anyway, you are a traitor, so I will effectively… "require" your services tonight, as well as the boys, don't ya?" The other male Raiders cheers "I know Hades wouldn't mind for a traitor."

"No! Please Oliver, I am begging you! I can still move fast enough, my special shotgun is almost repaired and…"

He shut me up by hitting me in the face. He grabs me by the neck and is ready to hit me one more time, but just in time Ben appears from inside the school.

"Oliver!"

The alluded sighs, let me go and turns.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"We founded some cars with a lot of food, water and with a lot of gas, a motorbike, a lot of weapons, some guns and several pretty empty rooms."

"Good! We will lock the tributes there! Anston! John! Take Hope to a room, we all shall enjoy some minutes with her. Ben! You carry the demigod, take off her armor, chain the girl, lock her right and then bring her suit to me." Ben was already making Jodie walk by menacing with a bullet through the head, when Oliver adds "Actually, you better take Vivian with you, just in case. Now go!"

The rest of the Raiders start carrying the rest of the group to the building, but while Grover is been pushed towards the main door ("a satyr huh? It has been a while since the last time we saw one" commented Oliver), he suddenly acts like he's been shot and drops down. The men make him to get up, but he couldn't stop shaking and shouting.

"Pe… Jack…! Ppp… JACK…!"

Then Anston and John take away my crotch, hit me in the stomach and start carrying me inside, just like the others. I try to resist, kicking John's stomach, but Anston hits me twice in my temple, turning everything dark. The last thing I catch to hear is the satyr yelling: "P…. JACKS…! Ppp….!" Before he gets shouted up by force.

**A/N: "Pe... Jack...!" Could it be? Was Grover talking about the great hero we all know and love? Find out in the nex chapter: "Thanks, bastard!" Please dont leave witouh telling me what did you like and what did you not! Thank you a loooot! Peace and love**


	15. Thanks bastard!

**A/N: So, happy xmas! A little delay but heh, whatever. The thing is that today has been raining a lot, so I don't feel too chatty. Hope you enjoy the chapter, don't forget to leave a review please!**

Nathan

We are locked up in one of the rooms that used to be occupied by the girls. Grover still is lying in the corner, unconscious, while the Commander is trying to wake him up. That guy, Oliver, stroked her really hard and leaved her severely injured; however the strength that the Commander has showed in the past is still in her, allowing her to keep conscious.

"You better rest, it's my turn" I say to her. She stands up, barely, and sits on a chair those men let us, and I take her place next to Grover, slapping him gently, procuring to wake him.

"Fucking monolatrists! And that treacherous snake, Hope, she set us all!" says, in a resented way the Commander. I nod.

"Yes, but she didn't call their attention when she got captured, and did not sound quite convincing about her broken radio."

"Whatever, we must focus in our current situation and make a plan for escape and free the others. Let me see… yes, this is the room, Nathan: move that wardrobe to the right, c'mon."

I remember now. The Commander ordered some time ago to make several escape routes if something like this happened or got surrounded by the Copper Ones. I open the wardrobe, but the men had already taken away everything from it. I start pushing the big piece of furniture when the Commander indicate so, as she is spying through the eye of the latch, making sure nobody is around to hear us. The wardrobe is fucking heavy, but it only takes me a few second to put it in motion, making it easier to move. Next to the corner appears a small hole, from where it comes some air.

"Put the chair hiding the gap and sit on it" Orders the Commander. I do so, as she sits down on the floor. Grover seems moving a little, but remains unconscious.

"What's the plan, Commander?"

"I… I don't really know. You can crawl through there, but neither of me and Grover are able of doing it. And when you escape, the next time they came they will notice and alert. Let's also not forget the fact that you would be defenseless, and these men are pretty good packed. "

I nod. I was about to answer, when Grover wakes up suddenly.

"Holy martyrs! I… wait, where are we?"

The Commander and I get next to him; I try to calm him down as she explains the situation. After she's finish, the Greek faun grabs her by the shoulders and say: "Doesn't matter! He will save us all!" She looks at him with an expression that reveals that the Commander is not following the satyr's thinking.

"Who will save us?"

Grover seems really excited.

"He! Percy Jackson!"

I may be wrong, but I think he just said "Percy Jackson". But it couldn't be, right? Supposedly, after the one on one fight he had with the Dark Angel itself, he was obliterated, and then the new god of gods banished him. And after forty years of the Copper Age, it results difficult to believe that a defeated legend would appear once more.

The Commander opens her eyes widely, back off and let her fall in the chair.

"It… it can't…how… no, where?" She finally asks, recovering her usual her.

"I can't tell exactly, but I think I felt him by the east…"

"The river! He must be there!"

They both look at me.

"Nathan" starts the Commander "you _must_ contact Percy Jackson. If he is a tenth of the man he was in the past, he will help us and solve all this mess."

"Sure, Commander."

She gets up, move the chair and let me free way. I am already in my knees, when she stops me.

-Make sure of tell him that Grover it's here. That should convince him.

I nod and crawl inside the escape way. It's an old ventilation duct, with some webs hanging around. I crawl for about a minute straight forward, and then the duct turns left. I turn and see a light at the end, but kinda far. After five minutes, I reach the end of the tunnel, which is covered by some vines, but still let the light pass. I remove the plants and look around. There is a plaza in the front, with some wasted cars in the middle of it. _So, this is the back of the school, to get to the river I must turn right, leave the city and finally find Jackson. Should be easy._

Grabbing the vines, I manage to get to the floor quietly and safe. From here, I can see the remains of the already set sun in the red rays of light, previewing a cold night. I start running next to the north side of the school, stopping every time I heard or think I heard something. Luckily, the Raiders have not move away the cars from the street, assuring me a stealthy way to the outpost, where I expect to find a weapon, or anything to defend myself. The door is closed, so there is a chance that those fuckers didn't enter the building.

Making sure none of the men who are on the big concrete boulder guarding the entrance see me, I go to the door, open it and close it as fast as I could, yet silently. I look around the hall of the building, hoping to find any leftover. After getting to the main stair, I check every single tile in search of a knife, a shiv or anything, but there is no such thing. Disappointed, I get out of the outpost without those guys noticing, and resume my race to the river.

The night has already covered the dome of the sky, limiting my vision, so I stop for a few seconds. I am really tired, but just reached the end of the city. The river is supposedly to be at a few miles, and running with my current tiredness for too long, in the dark, disarmed and with potential appearing Copper Ones it's the perfect example of the situations the Commander taught me to not get into. While I rest, sitting in the front of a car, I search for something to defend myself with only the weak moonlight assisting my eyes. After about five minutes, I give up and start running again, only to trip over a few feet later. I didn't fall, but the thing that almost provokes it caught my attention. I bend and grope the ground looking for whatever I stepped on, and finally I find it. It's an old, broken pipe, about the half of my length of leg. One end is kinda sharp, like it get broken by being beaten too much. _Well, little is better than nothing, so…_ I put it in my pocket and carry on running in quest for Percy Jackson.

Thinking about it, I guess Grover was able of sensing him due to his empathy link with the so named son of Poseidon. Still, I wonder why he couldn't sense him before today, just like he did in the past, or so he said. Probably the Commander had the same question, but knew that finding the hero was more important. And how the fuck I am supposed to find Jackson? Shall I shout out loud his name, expecting him to come? Or maybe I should…

Bah. _Fuck it_. I will see when I reach the river.

Finally, I heard the river flowing at the distance. I still can't see it, but it's not far. I jog through a small hill, and now the river reflects the thin light of the moon directly to my eyes. However, there is no Percy Jackson to see at all. I get next to the river and start shouting: "Percy Jackson! Help! Percy Jackson!"

I am about to mention Grover, when suddenly a wild roar from behind me surprises me. I turn, and encounter one of the most feared monsters of all Greek myths: the Minotaur. He is looking directly at me with eyes bath in red, holding a really big axe in his right hand. He roars again and run to me, with his sharp horns pointing at me.

I wait for the last second and jump away, avoiding a certain dead. He blows his axe, however I manage to roll aside from his reach. Now, he stands again and is attacking with his weapon viciously, letting me no way to escape. He rams me again, forcing me to the river, trapping me. Desperate, I try running to his legs and hit him between them, but he kicks me, making me land at the edge of the moving water.

He is about to end me with his axe when, impromptu, a large, formless mass of water caught him all and elevates him in the air. Drowning is not his main problem, since the water seems to be contracting and becoming "harder", if that's possible. The bastard tries to break out, punching and kicking for his life, but it's worthless. Then, the monster explodes in a cloud of glazy dust. The mass of water explodes as well, spreading the dust all over the area. I am getting up, when from nowhere a sword appears next to my neck.

"Who are you?" Asks a old man, holding a metal sword, with piercing green eyes "And how do you know my name?"

**A/N: oh yeaaaaah! an old-ass-kicking Percy Jackson jumps into action! Great, right? Anyway, gotta go now, so please be nice and leave a review, i would be VERY grateful. See ya!**


	16. The living legend

**A/N: Happy new year! Hope all of you guys had a wonderful 2014 and have an epic 2015! Anyway, here it is chapter 16, a day before that usual becuase tomorrow (friday) i will be gone camping with my scouts friends! Enjoy!**

Nathan

"So? Are you deaf or what?" Impatiently asks the elder, who is, without a doubt, Percy Jackson.

"I… My name's Nathan."

"Well, "Nathan", you best have a very good reason for being shouting out my name here in the wild" says, showing off his strangely white teeth.

"I was looking for you! I, my group is in trouble! Also…"

He makes me stop by pressing with his sword against my throat.

"Yeah yeah. Look: I would help, really, no joke, but right now I am in a quest for a person, and I'm already forty years late, okay? Be grateful for saving you from Asterion. I shall go now."

He let me in the ground and is already on his way to the river when I speak again:

"Wait! Grover is with us!"

He turns suddenly, staring at me again. Without I could even react, he puts again his weapon on my neck.

"What. Did. You. Said?"

I gulp.

"I said that Grover is with us." He holds the hard stare: "Prove it". "His name is Grover Underwood; he's about my height, err…"

"How old is he?"

Hah. Trick question.

"He's a satyr. He looks like he is middle thirties, but must be around the seventies. He has big horns…" Jackson stills has not changed his look at all, so I think harder for any detail of the satyr. "Oh! He loves cheese enchiladas, whatever they are."

The old hero back off, raise an eyebrow and laugh.

"Yeah, that's Grover." He sheaths his sword "So, if Grover is with your people, I guess I'll have to help ya. Where we go?"

"To the city. We had a fortress there, and my people are trapped there" I answer him as we begin walking in the night.

He touches his barbed chin in a distractedly way.

"Had? What happened?"

"We fight a horde there, holding our ground, and after winning the battle, we were cleaning all the mess, when these guys came…"

"Hold your horses kid! You said that your group whipped out an entire horde? Yeah sure. How many are you?"

"Around twenty" seeing Jackson's face of disbelieve, I add "We also have a demigod, Jodie, she even killed the Traitor, facilitating the battle for us. But the thing is that, after all that shit, a group of bikers appeared and imprisoned us all. They call themselves the "Raiders of Hades". "

Jackson looks at me with anxiety in his eyes. We are just in the top of a small hill, so I can also see the green and the worry that his point of view reflects.

"The Raiders… Fuck. Is his leader pale, with black hair?" I am to answer, but he begins talking to himself "Nah, it can't be. What are the odds of…? But if it's true that…"

"Hey" he stops and looks at me "yes. His leader, Oliver, is just like you said. And he's insane, a total piece of shit." The elder stare at the ground, obviously with angst. "What? Do you know him?"

"No… not personally. But if the rumors are right, he would…"

He stops talking; still looking the earth we step on it.

"He would…" I begin

Jackson raises his head, now with conviction in his eyes.

"He would be the bastard of an old friend."

He accelerates, refusing to carry on with the conversation. We kept like this for about two hours. The night only gets colder, and walking is not keeping me warm. Seeing this, Jackson proposes to jog for a little bit, an offer I accept gladly. Now, the cold is more tolerable, but still, it's really uncomfortable. I don't like the cold. _Fucking cold. I wish I had my green jacket._

I look at the legendary hero on my right. He's no teen anymore, but that's not a surprise. He has a hoary and full, yet not big, black beard, while his hair is mostly black, however there are several grizzly strands among it. His green eyes reveal the same attitude of stubbornness, perseverance and infinite loyalty that did his words. Or at least I read it that way. Moving on, his upper body and arms are covered by a rustic armor. I notice the iron plates kept in their place by leather tapes, making a probably a not light protection. He's carrying a normal size brown bag, and a weird leather container just between the backpack and the hips. Lastly, the steel sword he threatened me with is crossing his back diagonally, behind his back.

With no doubt, this old man is everything except from weak or helpless, in contrary as the majority of mortals of their age I have encountered, except of course the Commander. If the legends are true and Jackson had defeated other powerful demigods, all variety of monsters, giants, gods and even titans, then by now he should be an unstoppable war machine. He showed the magnitude of his powers when he saved me from the Minotaur by squeezing him in the air with water. I'm sure he will defeat the Raiders.

We are about to enter the city, when from the dark appears a pair of lights, accompanied by a loud motorbike noise. Within seconds, the two vehicles and their respective riders appear.

"Quick, take cover! I take them!" says Jackson

I look around for a place to hide, and finally get behind a car that is upside down. However, I maintain my head up, observing how the demigod faces the situation. He waits for them to come closer, and then, moving his arms, he make rise from the ground several rocks between him and the Raiders, making the motorcycles to crash and throw away the men.

Percy unsheathes his steel sword and touches two times a clock in his left hand. Magically, it transforms into a big, solid celestial bronze shield. He gets covered practically at all with it, only exposing the head to keep an eye on the aggressors.

Fast enough, they get up and start shooting the old half blood with pistols. He remains still since all the bullets either fail or land on his shield, which seems unaffected by them. He starts advancing slowly, always with his big shield in the front. One of them runs towards him with a big modded pipe in his hand. When he reaches Jackson, the man attacks to the head, however the elder pushes him away with the shield and then stab him right in the throat, killing him only seconds later.

Now the rest of them charge directly to Percy, two of them shooting too, making him to hide a little bit his head, however he redirects with his sword a couple of bullets that, I suppose, were going to hit him. The first guy that attacks him gets impaled from the stomach. While Jackson is getting out his weapon, the second one attacks him, to which he raises the shield to prevent damage. Then he blows widely the shield, throwing to his left the raider.

Without losing time, Jackson advances towards the last guy and start wielding his sword around. The man manages to dodge the sharp piece of metal three times; however Percy makes his weapon perform a low arc harming the guy in the legs, provoking the aggressor to fall in his knees. The hero finishes him with a clean cut in the neck. Meanwhile, the guy who was at his left has stand up, get behind him and raise his piercing club.

"Jackson!"

An impossible to see clearly set of movements occurs. Now, the last man is still, holding up his weapon, while Jackson has turned around and have his sword down. Slowly, the upper part of the body of the guy starts slicing by a diagonal line that separates his body in two, performed due to the epic slash that the hero must have just performed. When the rest of him finally falls to the ground, the old one ends with his suffering quickly.

I get out of my cover, simply stunned by what I just see. Indeed, Percy Jackson IS a killing machine. He walks to me as he "folds" his shield back to the clock and sheathes the sword.

"C'mon, it's almost breaking down."

**A/N: So? So? Did you like it? I hope so, becuase i really did while writing it. Please R&amp;R, i would really aprecciate it. Until next friday (9)! Any recommendation of suggestion for this story? Write it down please! See ya!**


	17. Good night, tonight

**A/N: Little known fact: also dope on the mic okay no, but just a little reminder: i do not own any of this so freacking awesome world/universe that uncle rick has created, and that's it, enjoy yourselves, don't forget to review!**

Jodie

It is the worst night of my life. Literally. There is no way I can sleep in such conditions. Those men kept my riot armor and all my weapons, and let me to starve in one of the upper rooms. By chance, I was place next to where they retain Hope, a definer fact that makes this night a horrible one.

Since the night started she has been raped constantly, without pauses between the men who does that to her. For more than four hours, I have been unable to sleep due to the permanent screams of whom I considered my friend, but wasn't more than a vile traitor. I really hate her, and can't forgive her just like that. But what they have been doing to her all night… it's just wrong, way wrong. I don't think anyone could deserve what Hope has, is and will suffer in this particular night. Not only was… _that_, but also they hit her, making her screams even more loud, if possible.

At first, I was not sad, even kinda happy for her to be receiving her punishment, but those sick feelings left right away, thanks to the gods. What kind of person could feel no apathy to such a disgraceful event? Fucking Slayer, what was I thinking?

_Jodie: Focus. _Yes. Yeah that's it, I must concentrate. Concentrate in finding a way out of here and freeing the others. But those men let me completely disarmed, handcuffed and chained to a heavy closet. Even if I opened the locks, I would still be defenseless. Plus, the men who are waiting their time with Hope are next to my door, making sure I don't try anything. And when those men go with Hope, the ones who just were call new guards for me.

_There's no escape._ I can't get out of the room, the Commander was beaten up really hard and Grover seemed to lose his mind. I cannot think in a possible solution for all this fucking mess, and tomorrow we will be "freed", as that idiot of Oliver said. He called us tributes, that means they will sacrifice us? "_I know Hades wouldn't mind for a traitor…" _he also said, referring to Hope. _What if…?_ What if they want to offer us as a tribute, as an offering to Hades? Fucking freaks, but why would they do something as gross? It makes no sense.

Without any energy left in my body, I let my head fall and myself to a world of dark nightmares. I dream formless, scary shadows that yell of pain, of injustice. They claim for vengeance, they demand a sacrifice. The sound of a battle involves me, as a dark young man fights with female warriors. He's strong and powerful, nevertheless, he got overwhelm by the women. Then, two black figures rise from the body of the warrior. One of them looks directly at me, smiling, and becomes the leader of the Raiders of Hades.

I wake up sweating as I was fighting with the dark angel itself, yet I am alone in my prison. Both my neck and back hurts due to the uncomfortable position in which I got asleep. I look around: nothing has changed since a few hours; however some diurnal light gets in the room through the gap between the wooden door and the floor. Luckily, I can't hear Hope anymore, yet, I do not know if that it's good or bad. What I can certainly hear are the constants footsteps in the outside, going everywhere. Occasionally, the men spoke between them, but only exchange a few words and continue walking, whatever they are doing.

I keep like this, resting awake with my eyes closed for what I think are a couple of hours. But then, some man stands in front of the door, unlocks it with a key and opens it.

"Good morning, sweaty" says Oliver, with a malicious smile

"Fuck you!" I say to him

"Ah, I like girls with an attitude! I… We will spend a very good time, you will see. Okay guys, take her downstairs. See ya in the main event."

Said that, the mad leader goes away, and three more guys enter the room. While one put me a gun in the head, the one Oliver called Anston release me from the chains that kept me locked to the closet and the ones retaining my legs, however he leave intact the handcuffs; then, they make me stand up a start walking outside the room.

They drive me through the left corridor, and when we pass next to where Hope is, I look, but the door it's closed. I look the other way, and from the window I manage to see the yard. There, these men have piled up a lot of stuff, but before I could see clearly they hit me to carry on moving.

Finally, we get out of the building to a cold and cloudy day. Right in the middle of what it was a battlefield yesterday; the Raiders had build a big pile made of chairs, desks, clothes, bed sheets, mattress, planks and all the inflammable parts of the catapults. Everything is wooden, except from the several bodies of our friends that also are there put, like if they were mere firewood. There are also some corpses of the copperfaces that were recently turned, meaning that they are not completely coppered.

They drive me to one of the dismantled benches, chain the handcuff to the bench and lock it with a key padlock.

"Enjoy the show" comments Anston as he and the others leave me.

**A/N: So yeah, this story is on it's final chapters, so i would really aprecciate all the comments/review you could make, it only takes 1-2 minutes. Thank you very much, see ya next friday!**


	18. Ritualness

**A/N: Sup guys, everything's fine? Hope so. Anyway, here's chapter 18, the one before the last one! However, this one is "special", since my dear friend Sandy59210 helped me with the grammar and all that detailed stuff I hate. So yeah, thanks a lot pal! And hope you all enjoy this chapter, may the force be with you!**

Jodie

Oliver stood in front of the crowd, which was composed of both his men and my defeated friends. However, I couldn't see Nate anywhere. _What if he escaped?!_ I wondered. I remember him being carried next to the Commander and Grover, so maybe there's a chance they thought of a plan! Either way, I should still remain alert; I have a weird feeling about all this.

Hope's here too, however, she is being carried by a man. From here I can't see her very well, but she doesn't exactly look healthy. The man, Ben, let Hope fall to the ground unceremoniously. Then he walked away from my people, pulled out his gun, and stood in his place, guarding them like they were sheep.

The Raiders' leader was about to start talking, however Anston walks over to him and whispered something. Oliver's facial expression changed from relaxed to _I'm-gonna-kill-you-all_. He smacks his fellow, and starts shouting.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU! REALLY? You let a fucking kid get away? FUCKING IDIOTS! Did you fucking hear me!? FUCKING IDIOTS! AND THE MEN HAD NOT RETURNED YET? WHAT KIND OF BUUULLSHIT ARE YOU SAYING TO ME?! FUCKER!"

He pulls out his revolver and shoots Anston in the face, instantly killing him.

"FUCKING BEN! Grab his stuff, and put him in the pile!"

The alluded one comes, does what he's told and returns to his place. Oliver tries to calm down by closing his eyes, breathing deep and exhaling. Finally, he opens his dark eyes.

"Oh, dear. One can't get good men nowadays, huh?" he says to the crowd, who respond with an angry silence "Anyway, the ceremony MUST go on. Raiders! Put all of them in the pile!"

Oliver's men got the rest of my group in the pile, and tied them up with rope and even some chains. They added more inflammable junk on them, making the odds of escaping absolute zero. The cruel leader opens his arms to the sky.

"HADES! God of the…"

"FUCKER! MAD MAN!" Interrupts Robert, whose face was red with angriness and most likely impotence. Quickly, one of the girls walked over to him and smacked him twice with a bat, breaking his jaw and knocking him out. The message was clear.

Oliver rasps. "As I was saying… HADES! God of the Underworld! Lord of the dead! Grandfather! Here we are, again, your humble servants, your Raiders! Yesterday, thanks to your guidance, we found this group of unbelievers and traitors. Now, we gather again to thank you by sacrificing these men and women, hoping in return the usual. ALL HAIL HADES, THE ABSOLUTE GOD!"

"HAIL HADES!" the rest of the Raiders shouts.

Some men start empting gallons of gasoline in the pile, making sure they're wetting every single piece of wood. They also sprayed my friends with it.

"And now, the main event" Oliver says, in a ceremonial manner, who takes out his gun once again, points to the pile, and shoots it.

The fire starts immediately, and spreads fast. At first, it stayed at the bottom of the pile, however in less than a few seconds it started rising.

Suddenly, a strange object falls from above, landing near the Raiders. It was followed by three more of them, which all landed in different places. With a weird explosion, they start to release an unimaginable amount of dark grey smoke, creating dense fume curtains and with them, chaos in the school. Nobody seems to know what's happening or where everybody is, except me. I was far enough away to not be caught in the confusion. _It's now or never._

Using a difficult technique of telekinesis, I tried to make the lock of the handcuffs open. It's not easy because I usually only use it on objects that I can see and are near, however, locks are a whole different story. Not only can I not see what I am doing, the mechanism is also as small as an ant, complicating things even more.

While I'm still struggling with the handcuffs, I heard several familiar noises that implemented to the already despairing screams of my friends who were about to be carbonized inside the smoke, that didn't seem to be going out anytime soon. Several gunshots, vocalized pain, and harmful cuts compose the inharmonic melody that lied deep within the black smoke.

_Finally!_ I unlocked the handcuffs, freed myself and stood. _And now…? _I go, running into the dense curtain, hoping to get a weapon. Maybe I could get a knife or something to free the Commander and the others. When I entered the blind zone, I started crawling as fast as I could, keeping away from the gunshots, and following the intense heat of the pile.

After several seconds, the fire blazed right in front of me, and luckily I couldn't see any Raiders around it. I went directly towards it, searching for my friends. Many of them have stopped shouting. The first one I find is Robert, who is still unconscious, with blood all over his face and chest. The fire has already taken most of the junk in his lower part of the body, so I start removing it desperately, only to find that both of his legs have been consumed almost completely by the fire, letting only a black, noisome dead flesh. With tears in my eyes, I moved away, looking for someone else who's not doomed.

"Jodie! Jod..." she said, ending with a violent cough.

The voice of the Commander was weak and not clear, however I was still able of guess where it had come from. I ran to the left of the pyre and found her with already half of her body out of it. Her right leg was still stuck in the mortal fire trap. We both tried with all our strength to move away a big wooden beam that was part of the catapult. I even added my powers to our push; however, it's no use. With no time to lose, I jumped to the pyre and kicked the beam from a different angle. After two kicks, a shadow porting a shotgun emerges from the smoke, pointing directly at us.

"Stop, fuckers!"

The asshole is Ben, who pulls out a pipe and came over to hit both of us. I was in no position to respond or counter attack, plus using my powers this rigorously in such a short amount of time has exhausted me. He has already risen up with his club, when he's suddenly shot from behind. He let the weapon fall, and started to turn around until he received yet another shot, this time in the chest, and definitely killing him. Nathan appears from the already retreating dark. He has two guns. One is in his hand and the other one is in his pocket. He also held a short and sharp pipe in his left hand.

He came to us, grabbed the pipe off of dead Ben and put it between the beam and the pile. Preventing what he's about to do, I jumped out to the floor, allowing him to make leverage. It only takes him a second to move the beam enough to let the Commander go. Once free, she falls weakly, to the ground next to me.

"Is…" She pauses to cough again, "Is _he_ with you?" Asks our leader. Nathan nods impatiently.

"Yeah. C'mon Jodie, help us finish these Raiders."

I look at the Commander.

"I'll… be alright. You kill them. I'll rescue…" – cough – "… the others" she said as she somehow managed stand, despite all the harm she had suffered in less than twenty four hours.

Nate handed me a gun and one of the punk's shivs, and we ran into the diffusing smoke.

**A/N: Ready for the final chapter? Hell, I am! But as usual, you gotta wait for around week, so, yeah, sorry about that. However, expect at least the longer chapter of this story (which is not that much, but still), a POV of the favorite character of all of you (or at least of a big bunch of you), an awesome epilogue ( depends on your definition of "awesome") and of course full of action, swords, godly powers, ****descendant/s from the character/s from PJO and HoO. So I guess that's all, please leave a review? Ahh, who I am fooling? Just enjoy the chapter lads.**


	19. By the Axe

**A/N: _"After all this time?" "Always". _Well my loved readers, here it is, the last chapter of _The Copper Age_, plus an epilogue. Hope you enjoy it.**

Percy

The smoke produced by my bombs were already disappearing by the time I faced the last three Raiders. One of them had a shotgun and was repeatedly shooting at me, forcing me to stay in the cover of my shield. I could hardly attack him. His companions noticed, and charged at me. One had a pistol and another had a bat with scissors at the end of it.

A bat with scissors. Huh. I pictured an actual bat flying around a pool with a pair of scissors in its little claws. Then Coach Hedge appears and shouts, "No running _or flying _near the pool with scissors!" Poor Coach Hedge. He didn't deserve to die so far away from his family… Another shot to my shield made me return to the bitter reality, and face these men.

"Cover me!" said the one with the shotgun, as he proceeded to reload his gun. Without losing any time, I rushed to the nearest Raider, who had the modified bat, smacked him in the face with my shield, and made him a new ventilation system in the middle of his chest with my always trusty _Bloodtide. _The one with the gun tried to shoot me in the head, but he failed miserably. Seeing that he was not near enough to jump on me and finish it, and the Raider with the shotgun had almost finished reloading, I threw _Bloodtide_ at my enemy, which resulted with an instant decapitation. Mercy gods, I always surprised myself when I did that. I mean, chopping heads _at this distance _and at _this_ _age? _Hell, never could have guessed I would be _this _badass. But again, I got lost in my thoughts. What was I…?

K-BANG!

Fuck. Yeah, it was the stupid Raiders and the stupid shotgun that made me fall with a single shot. _Need to focus, Perseus._ "Yeah, I know." _So stop talking to yourself! _"Okay, okay,"I barely managed to raise my shield to protect myself from another shotgun bullet, much nearer than the one which stroke me down, since my attacker had come even closer. He kept shooting, wasting ammo on my indestructible, iron-celestial bronze, big ass shield. The _iron_ cover couldn't resist too many rounds, but the bronze would protect me well, as had all my life. But before I could defend myself from the Raider, that boy Nathan appeared from the remaining smoke with a girl, and they both hit the bad guy with pipes, ultimately killing him, or at least knocking him out. Nathan came to me and helped me stand.

"Thanks, now where is Oliver?"

"Who is this cranky old man?" asks the girl, as she passes me _Bloodtide._

"Jodie, this is Percy Jackson. The Commander sent me to call him and he's helping us, but c'mon, we gotta find Oliver. He was not in the smoke"

The girl's jaw dropped "Oh. My. Gods. It's… Are you…? Ohmygods its Percy Jackson! Sososo sorry about calling you old and cranky! It's an honor to…"

"Okay, okay, girl, just shut it!" Pff. I am _way _too old to have fan girls, _again._ I was about to command these kids to search for Oliver inside the building when he abruptly appeared from a door, carrying a M27 automatic rifle. _Fuck, I hate those. _

"You! Fuckers! Don't you see what you have done?! We were the Raiders of Hades! His heralds in this devastated, shadow world! We were the ones that will help Lord Hades to raise and defeat the Copper God! It was the only way! And now, only I last, and …" I pulled out my gun and pointed it at him, but he started firing his light machine gun. I covered myself with my shield, and made a kinda big boulder rise from the floor and protect the kids. The maniac started laughing.

"No way, the one and only… hahaha… Percy Jackson, after all this time… you've still been alive? Didn't the Dark Angel slay and exile you? Ah, but it doesn't matter. I shall kill ya with pleasure. The blood of a legendary demigod like you will definitely bring Lord Hades to his maximum powers, and the world will be freed of the Copper Oppression! Prepare to die, Jackson!"

_No, not again._ There is no way I will ever let anyone use my blood to raise a weak or asleep god, goddess or whatever, again. This time my nose is in a perfect state (if you consider the fact that it has been broken way too many times), and I still have some power juice beneath me. But when I began to walk towards the Hades legacy, I saw him make a familiar gesture, and suddenly the dead bodies of the Raiders started to stand. They raised their clubs as they headed towards us. "Nate, girl, take care of those guys, I'll deal with this lunatic." I focused, and soon entered "badass" mode.

First, I took out _Bloodtide_ and threw at Oliver's machine gun. The blade destroyed the fire arm, disarming the bastard of the _Ghost King_. Next, I pulled out my 9 mm and shot him, however, the bullets seemed to have no effect on his armored chest. Trying for a headshot would have ended with a disaster with my awful accuracy, so I put it back in my pocket and raised my shield as Oliver came to me wielding a black axe. He struck my shield hard, making it tremble.

I started retreating, so I could bring out old _Riptide_ to battle, but Oliver didn't leave me alone for even a second, keeping me in a defense position. He struck with a strength only the young with good alimentation had, something odd in these days. To end his attack, I counter attacked him by standing up and using my shield to push him away. That gave me enough time to unsheathe _Riptide._ I proceeded to attack him with a stabbing cut that I learned directly from my roman friends, but he seemed familiar with that maneuver. He simply moved aside and struck once more, aiming directly at my outstretched arm, but fortunately, I managed to get it out of the way before he could amputate it. Then he started to wield his dark weapon, forcing me to play defense again. And I really _hate_ to be in defense, but I know it's essential to defeat powerful opponents. He was clearly stronger, faster, more agile, and well… younger, which gave him the physical advantage, but I had my experience and an unbreakable shield. It shouldn't have been an easy or difficulty victory. I was getting ready to swing my sword when Oliver raised his axe, but out of nowhere, he kicked my shield, throwing me to the ground, fucking again. Before I could even land, he started hitting my shield with his axe as hard as he could. The shield was trembling, so I released _Riptide_ and held the shield with both of my hands, trying to make it last.

After too many hits, - in which I could not react or defend myself – my protection started to break, and a big fracture soon appeared around the middle of the shield. Knowing I don't have much time, I tried to grab my favorite sword, but he quickly noticed my tactic and kicked it away from me. Finally, my shield ceded before his stygian iron axe, and left me without protection.

"Now, son of Poseidon, get ready to be sacrificed and offered to the greatest god of the Pantheon!" Oliver said with mad eyes and an insane voice. He held up his axe, but he suddenly looked to his left, and moved his weapon, protecting himself from incoming bullets. I looked over to the same spot, and saw Nathan and that girl, Jodie, running to him, him with a pair of guns and her with lance. I took advantage of his distraction and crawled away to take out _Riptide_. While the youngsters fought bravely against the maniac legacy, I started to summon my powers on the water I had stored just under my backpack. After all, carrying around some water with me was indeed one of my brightest ideas. However, it wasn't a lot of water, so I couldn't drown him or pressurize it to make the water explode as I did with Asterion, but I could at least freeze his black axe. I directed my sword at the water to command it at Oliver's weapon. The force of the water made him let go and the axe was then frozen to the wall behind him. Jodie jumped to him, with her lance pointing at his head, but he took it with his bare hand and punched the young demigod in the face. Nathan tried to kick the bad guy in the guts, but Oliver stopped him with a fist to the knee, then grabbed him by the neck and shoved him away, leaving the two younglings fighting with the recently raised undead. Now free of imminent attacks, he ran to his frozen axe and started breaking the ice with a knife.

I decided to not let the madman win, so I ran to him with _Riptide _in my hand, but before I could reach him, an odd pain crossed my old body, making me fall in my knees. _Grover… is dying?_ Fuck. The empathy link. I thought that link was broken years ago, with the Copper Age and all that. Seems not. Double fuck. If Grover dies, he'll simply turn into a plant, but that meant I would also die or at best, sink to a vegetative state. Gritting my teeth and using the last of my strength, I stood up and continued walking towards the legacy. He heard my steps and turned around. I see in his eyes the same madness and fury I once saw in Luke. Hell, it felt like millennia had passed since Luke was my enemy. But I must focus on Oliver, the bastard son of my friend, and end his monstrous sacrifices. I was almost near enough to attack him, but at last moment he managed to break the ice covering his iron axe. He grabbed it and wielded it in my direction, making me flinch.

I attacked him, but he dodged my offensive and countered with his axe to my left. Instinctively, I raised my left arm, but there was no shield now, so his black axe landed directly in my arm. The stygian iron went through the thick armor as if it was merely paper. The blade didn't stop until it stuck bone. The pain totally immobilized me, leaving me no way to respond. He yanked out the axe, incrementing my pain, and raised it up to end me with a single blow to the head. Unable to even talk, I raised my head and looked directly into his cruel, cruel eyes.

"You're not so _legendary_ after all, huh? At least die with the satisfaction that this world will return to its original glory, safe from the Copper Angel." His muscles tensed and I closed my eyes as he struck.

But the hit never landed.

I heard a sound next to and I opened my eyes, only to find a body between me and Oliver.

It was Nathan.

The stygian iron axe, black as a nightmare, went right through the iron pipe the boy was holding to protect himself, and continued its way down into his chest, passing right through his shoulder and lung.

He let our final breath out, and fell next to me.

Before Oliver could even look away from the fallen boy, a lance hit him right in the head, instantly killing him. His body fell with the reanimated corpses. That Jodie girl came over fast and crouched next to Nathan's body, as she began to cry.

"Nate? Please…! Please don't… don't go Nathan! Stay! Please… Nathan… I... I always…"

I looked away from the young hero that just saved my life, and saw two figures coming towards us: an old woman who was holding what was left of what was once my best friend, Grover, whose legs were pretty much gone because of the fire and his arms were covered completely in blood.

I gathered the little strength I had left and stood. I walked over to the old woman and Grover. As I neared his body, I started to feel his emotions again, and heck they hurt. He was in so much pain; I couldn't understand how he even he could remain conscious. I guess forty years of struggling to survive would strengthen anyone. The woman suddenly lowered Grover to the ground so I could near him. He saw me, and held my old right hand, just as we used to do back in Yancy. Hah. Aside from that and Chiron's classes as Mr. Brunner, I couldn't remember anything before my life as a demigod, not being afraid of dying every day… Camp half-blood was the best home I had… and well, Camp Jupiter too, but they were both gone now. Back in reality, I looked deep into Grover's eyes and said, "You see? I told ya we would meet again."

With a lot of pain, he tried to smile.

"Percy…" He stopped smiling. "Percy, the empathy link… I must…"

I interrupt him, "Don't worry, friend, I…"

"Listen to me! She… _she_ is _alive_, and you gotta be with her… so please, concede me this last wish: let's break the empathy link. There is no purpose for us to both die."

I couldn't believe him. Could it be that… _she_ was alive…? But I had to fulfill my best friend's dying wish.

"Okay, so… um… I want to break the empathy link?"

"Say it with conviction, Percy. I want to break…" He stopped to gulp "…my empathy link with Perseus Jackson."

"I want to break my empathy link with… Grover Underwood."

I felt an odd sensation, like a part of myself had just abandoned me, leaving me incomplete. Grover's eyes opened, and then closed candidly, but this time, forever.

I stood up and decided that I needed to find _her_ to honor Grover's sacrifice, but the old woman said, "Percy…"

I look at her. Her probably once beautiful hair was now gray and white, her body a little hutched, and then her grey, stormy eyes. _Those_ eyes… _Could it be? He just said she was alive, but… _

"Percy, it's me, A…"

I need to hear no more. Her body maybe aged, her voice may not be as melodious as once it was, and her gorgeous hair would never be golden again, but the eyes… her eyes… that was enough for me. I hugged her with all the love I was able to transmit, and let my head rest on her shoulder, letting some tears escape.

"It has been so long, and I... I… please me forgive, okay?"

"Shh… Don't ruin the moment, Seaweed Brain," she said softly.

Despite her words, her voice made me assume she was also crying. I still wanted to apologize for not being with her for such a hard and dangerous forty years. I even had prepared some words for the moment I found her, but all I could do now was cry and hold her for all the time together we lost. We spent several minutes like this, until Annabeth finally stepped away. That girl, Jodie, stood in front of us and her cheeks and eyes were full of tears.

"What happened, dear?" asked my loved one.

"Nathan, he… he…"

Annabeth went to her and they both hugged strongly. "It's okay Jodie; he died as a real hero defending others. Don't worry. He shall remain in our hearts, and he will be avenged when this Copper Age ends."

"But… what if never ends? What if the Dark Angel is never defeated? What if…?"

I decide to intervene.

"Hey kiddo," The young demigod looked at me. She had the same look in her light brown eyes as I had when I returned to Camp Half-Blood, after the Copper God sent his endless army of Copper Ones and destroyed it completely. I could see the same pain in her; that boy, Nathan, must have been the world to her. "We cannot afford having the luxury of the doubt. We _must_ look forward with hope, always giving the best of ourselves to restore balance to this chaotic world. Not only for us, but for all of those who have fallen with the same hope, we _owe _them, got ya? We endure and survive. You have to keep going. That's the trick."

She didn't seem to feel comforted, but my experiences had taught me that these days, in these situations, we don't need comforting words; we need advice and a figurative slap in the face to snap us out of the pain. Jodie wiped away some tears from her face with her and said, "You're right. It's no use crying for the dead. Nathan never did, and neither shall I, not anymore. That's what he would want." I look at my love, and she smiled. After all, not everything is lost.

"Now," Annabeth started, "we must gather anything useful from here and move on. Soon this place will be crowded with Copper Ones, so we must hurry, and…"

"I know a place to go." The two girls looked at me. "It's a place set up by demigods and mortals, a big camp where everyone is admitted as long as they collaborate. I stayed there for a time while recovering from some wounds. We can go there by following the river to the north."

"That's great! What's the camp's name?" asked Jodie.

"_Nova Utopia_, city of walls and peace"

**A/N: Well, I guess that's all. The end of an era, at least for me. I dedicate a lot of time in this fanfiction, an now, besides not having the "success" i was expecting (not millions but a little more), I am really proud. Like, I look at this, and I feel happy. After all, the vast of us who write fanfictions want to be an author, and I am no different, and this whole experience has help me a lot practicing and getting better at writing. A really special thank you to my favorite users and reviewers: Sandy59210 and 17headlines, both of them helped me a lot with advice, grammar/spelling corrections (my biggest weakness) and "cheering up". So yeah, thanks a lot, but, like really a lot. Virtual hugs and kisses. But now, is time to say goodbye to this fic, and hell I will miss writing for it. However, I may return to this "universe", this time with a one-shot with your favorite hero as the protagonist... yeah, I mean Leo. Of course, this is not yet confirmed, but I shall anounce whatever I decide to do it or then, it has been a honor and a pleasure, thanks for each one of you, reviewers and silent readers, without every single one of you I woudn't have continue writing. *takes off hat and reverence* Hope you have enjoy as much as I did reading this humble story, cheers and have a good night.**

**Jay**


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